/ 



II 1.1110 librnm donavit hujusce Collegii 

ATHEN/EUM. 

MDCCCLXX. 



\ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. % 



Shelf V 3 *5 C *5 



£ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 2 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE REPUBLIC. 



BRIEFLY CONSIDERED IN 

SEVEN SEEMONS, 

PREACHED IN 

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, PITTSBURGH, PA., 

DURING THE WINTER AND SPRING OF 1854-5, 

j BY 

r 

EDWIN M. VAN DETJSEN, A. M., 

RECTOR. 



PITTSBURGH: 

PRINTED BY W. 8. HAVEN, CORNER OF MARKET AND SECOND STREET8. 
1856. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 

EDWIN M. VAN DEUSEN, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Western District of 
Pennsylvania. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Pittsburgh, Sept. 6th, 1855. 

Rev. E. M. Van Deusen. 

Bear Sir : Having listened with much interest to 
the course of monthly sermons delivered by you during the last 
winter and spring, and being desirous to give them a more 
permanent form, and the important truths they set forth, a 
more extended hearing, we respectfully request a copy for 
publication. 

Very truly, 

Your friends and parishioners, 
William F. Johnston, N. P. Sawyer, 



J. W. Paul, 
Chas. A. Colton, 
Geo. E. Arnold, 
H. Burgwin, 
Geo. S. Selden, 
Isaac M. Pennock, 
Th. Umbstaetter, 
John Harper, 
James M. Cooper, 
Wm. S. Lavely, 
M. Hodkinson, 
S. F. von Bonnhorst, 
D. Mitchell, Jr. 
A. A. Carrier, 
Wilson Miller, 
James A. Hutchison, 
D. H. Williams, 



C. W. Robb, 
Thos. B. Graham, 
Jas. B. Murray, 
J. W. Butler, 
E. P. Jones, 
Henry S. King, 
H. Smyser, 
Thos. Palmer, 
J. P. Tanner, 
Geo. F. Van Doren, 
R. Finney, 
Wm. A. Lee, 
John C. Bindley, 
E. Phillips, 
H. J. Lynch, 
J. H. Sewell, 
A. Burke. 



Hon. 



Pittsburgh, Oct. 8th, 1855. 
W. F. Johnston, and others. 

Gentlemen : My reply to your kind note has been 
delayed, not for want of a right appreciation of your request, and 



iv 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



the motives which prompted it ; but because of absence from the 
city, and also that there might be time for the deliberation 
which its importance demanded. 

With no strong conviction that the sermons will present any- 
great attractions, except what may arise from the importance 
of the facts, principles and truths they present for consideration, 
I yield to your too partial judgment, and herewith furnish you 
a copy for publication. 

Very truly and faithfully, 

Your friend and Rector, 

EDWIN M. VAN DEUSEN. 



TO 

THE CONGREGATION 

WORSHIPING IN ST. PETER'S CHURCH, 

WHOSE KINDNESS, FORBEARANCE AND INDULGENCE ARE HERE GRATEFULLY 
ACKNOWLEDGED : 

PREPARED FOR THEIR INSTRUCTION, 

ARE NOW HUMBLY, BUT HOPEFULLY, INSCRIBED 
B T 

THEIR DEVOTED FRIEND AND RECTOR. 



1* 



"It is no less useful than curious, in reading history, to mark the different 
dispositions, manners, and characters of nations, and their rulers; since these 
are the instruments, working under the direction of Providence for the accom- 
plishment of its designs, without any infringement of man's free will. If you 
behold a nation distinguished by irreligion and contempt of things sacred ; by 
licentiousness, faction, luxury, dissipation, and effeminacy; be assured that 
without a reformation, and a return to first principles, the conquest of that 
nation by some other, is becoming more and more feasible every day ; the same 
vices which provoke divine vengeance, preparing the way for its execution, 
Such were the characteristics of the ancient people of God in the times preceding 
their several captivities. Such was the case when the old Assyrian empire 
perished with Sardanapalus ; when Babylon was surprised by Cyrus; when 
Darius was overthrown by Alexander ; when Greece fell under the dominion of 
the Romans ; when these last were overwhelmed by the northern nations ; and 
when Constantinople was taken by the Turks. Every man who has the pros- 
perity of his country at heart, should very seriously consider, how far these 
toJ:ens are to be found upon ourselves ; what can be done to prevent the farther 
spreading of the infection, and to eradicate the seeds of the disorder." — Works 
of the Rt, Rev. George Horne, D. Bishop of Norwich, 1790, Vol, 2, p. 344. 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON I. 

Mutual Dependence^ Page 11 

Ephesians iv: 25. — "For we are members one of another.' 7 

SERMON II. 

National Dangers, 27 

Romans xi: 20.— "Be not high minded, but fear." 

SERMON III. 

Unbelief, A National Danger, ........ 48 

Hebrews iii : 12. — " Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil 
heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." 

SERMON IV. 
Hopes of the Republic, 70 



Isaiah lxv: 8. — " Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the 
cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not : for a blessing is in it : so will I do for 
my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all." 

SERMON V. 
Variety of Sects. — The Romish System, 90 

St. James iii : 16. — " For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and 
every evil work." 

1 St. Peter v : 3.—" Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being 
ensamples to the flock." 



viii 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON VI. 

The Denominational System, 106 

1 Corinthians xiv : 26. — " Let all things be done unto edifying." 

SERMON VII. 

The Church System, 130 

1 Thessalonians y : 21. — « Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good." 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The preparation and delivery of the following course of 
Sermons was occasioned by the fact, that as St. Peter's church 
has a night service only on the evening of the first Sunday 
in each month, it was thought that it furnished a very suitable 
opportunity for the presentation of a variety of topics of great 
and general interest, which do not ordinarily find a place in the 
parochial instruction of the Lord's day. There had been so 
many startling events, and there was so much in the present 
condition of the country, to arouse and alarm all devout Chris- 
tians, and lovers of the nation's true welfare ; that a binding 
obligation was felt to make the pulpit speak forth the language 
of admonition and warning. It is not pretended that anything 
new or original is presented ; but the discourses were prepared 
more in the way of suggestion, to awaken attention, promote 
inquiry, and lead to the study and examination of the impor- 
tant subjects they contain ; rather than to discuss them fully, 
or make a thorough treatise upon any one or more, that passed 
under review. The facts are but a fraction of the volume, or 
even volumes that are at hand, and ready for the use of any 
one who is disposed to enter upon further investigation. 

It will be observed that the examination of the truth of the 
doctrines of any religious body has been carefully avoided ; and 
that the attention is confined to the practical working of the 
modes or systems adopted for the accomplishment of a vastly 
important object — the dissemination of morality and religion 
throughout the nation. 

The Sermons are now published in compliance with an earnest 
desire, expressed in private at the time of their delivery, by 



X 



INTRODUCTORY. 



parishioners, and others ; and more recently embodied in a 
communication, which will be found on another page ; and, also, 
that erroneous inferences and impressions, in regard to their 
real character, and teaching, might be removed, by careful 
reading and examination. While the author is very far from 
depreciating any good done by others, and does earnestly rejoice 
in its accomplishment ; it is the bounden duty of all to abandon 
that which is inefficient, follow always "the more excellent 
way" of divine prescription, and seek to promote "that* 
agreement in the faith and knowledge of God," and to attain to 
"that ripeness and perfectness of age in Christ, that there be 
no place left among you, either for error in religion, or for 
viciousness in life." 

Requesting the indulgence of the reader for their defects, and 
his careful consideration of their truths, principles and facts ; 
the author submits these Sermons to all who desire to take 
pleasure in being recognized as a part of the Republic, and to 
feel honored in bearing the appellation of American Citizens. 



* Exhortation in the Form and Manner of Ordering Priests. 



SERMON I. 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 

Ephesians iv: 25. — "For we are members one of another. ' ; 

There are laws of our being, and our association in 
the varied relations of life, out of which spring some of 
our weighty obligations; and upon the observance of 
which, depends much of our true welfare and happiness. 
They are primary and fundamental; and if generally 
recognized, and carefully followed, need no frequent 
comments, nor labored expositions ; but when forgotten, 
or imperfectly obeyed, or deprived of their due influence 
over the minds of men ; it becomes necessary to go back 
to these first principles — endeavor to establish and enforce 
them, with all the sanctions of reason, justice and author- 
ity — and protect them from future encroachment and 
neglect, by all those barriers and safeguards, which their 
sacredness and importance should prompt us to secure. 
There are certain laws which govern the continuous and 
graceful flowings of the majestic and fertilizing stream, 
of which we seldom take thought or notice, so long as 
they are left undisturbed ; but when the accumulating 
rubbish fills up the channel, or the embankments are 
overflowed, or broken down; then those obstructions 
must be removed' — those barriers restored, and more efli- 



12 



SERMON I. 



cient defences erected — before those laws can again be 
supreme, and confine those waters in one continuous cur- 
rent, to enrich the soil, and beautify the landscape. 
There are certain laws which enter into the formation, 
and govern the preservation, of the healthful atmosphere; 
but they seldom become our study, or even arrest our at- 
tention, till we find there is derangement — some corrupt 
element has been introduced, and living men are falling 
before the power of the withering and deadly agent- 
Then we must exert all our wisdom and skill to discover 
the secret enemy, and use every effort to remove the 
cause of the afflicting mortality, and restore the due in- 
fluence of those laws which preserve a pure and health- 
ful atmosphere. Such a first truth, and fundamental 
law of our being, and association in the varied relations 
of life, is set forth in the words of the text : " For we 
are members one of another." They exhibit our mutual 
dependence — teach that we are bound together, and in- 
timately united : and if this connection were generally 
remembered, there would be a performance of the 
duties which grow out of it ; and no necessity for 
setting forth its claims, nor the arguments upon which 
they rest. But there is a selfishness, and love of 
individual independence, which would dissolve this con- 
nection; and make all labor, learning, and care, centre in 
separate, personal happiness and aggrandizement. They 
dry up sympathy for others' misfortunes, and have no 
expression of joy for others' prosperity — in business 
transactions, justify all deception and intrigue — in times 
of danger, bestow no thought upon others' safety — with a 
multitude of lives exposed, are concerned only for the 
preservation of one — with poverty, ignorance and suffer- 
ing abroad, are indifferent if there are comfort, quiet and 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 



13 



knowledge at home — with vice, profligacy and crime in 
the alley, the court, and other low haunts, are without 
fear, if they intrude not upon their precincts, nor dis- 
turb their possessions. In such a condition of things, it 
becomes the duty of every one to examine first truths 
and fundamental laws ; and thus check the current of 
•evils, which must otherwise overflow and lay waste : and 
we must purify that atmosphere which has been poisoned 
and deranged, because the principles of its healthful 
preservation have been set aside. To oppose the influ- 
ence of individual independence, and a simple regard for 
self in all we feel, think, say and do, we must analyze 
those inspired words of the Apostle, and learn our true 
duty from the divine oracles — "for we are members one 
of another.' ' 

We find these words true when we contemplate our 
common origin. No distance of time — no change of 
feature, or custom, or condition — no relapse into the 
depths of Ignorance or barbarism, can break the chain 
which binds the whole human family, as descendants 
from the first two of the same kind, and unites them in 
one common race. The very name given to our first 
parent exhibits this truth. 11 And Adam called his 
wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all 
living."* So, when the great Apostle stood before the 
haughty Athenians to reveal "the unknown God" whom 
they "ignorantly worshiped," and to "preach the un- 
searchable riches of Christ," he told them plainly that 
God "had made of one blood all nations of men for to 
dwell on all the face of the earth as the Athenians 
boasted that they were the aborigines of their country, 



--Gen. iii: 20. 



fActs xvii: 2S, 2G. 

9 



14 



SERMON I. 



and in no way related to any other people. Indeed, the 
whole system of revealed religion— the varied, divine 
dispensations — the incarnation, life and death of our 
blessed Lord — and the instructions of His Apostles 5 have 
reference to the common origin and nature of the whole 
human family. Must there not also be a common mem- 
bership and relationship ? When Christ atoned for a 
guilt incurred in Paradise, and provided a way of escape 
from its penalty; did He not proceed upon the assumption 
that "we are members one of another," intimately con- 
nected ; and that the lapse of some four thousand years 
had not changed or impaired this relationship ? When 
He gave His final commission to His Apostles, did He 
not tell them to "go into all the world, and preach 
the Gospel to every creature ?"* In all His acts and 
instructions, this close bond of union is recognized ; and 
with its severance must be associated the destruction of 
His authority, and the dissolution of His church. What 
though the scattered members of this race never meet ; 
and unmeasured distance intervenes between their res- 
pective dwelling places- — the bond of connection is unaf- 
fected — this depends upon a common origin. The most 
distant leaf or tendril of the far-stretching vine, presents 
evidence of relationship to that which springs nearest 
the root, because having a common beginning. The op- 
posite branches of the loftiest and most wide-spreading 
tree, are always exhibiting like features, because pro- 
ceeding from one source. If he icould, therefore, man 
cannot destroy his connection with his fellow man ; and 
though he may advance in knowledge and wisdom — 
achieve wonders by his genius — and be elevated to the 



*Mark xvi : 15. 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 



15 



very pinnacle of earthly glory, he cannot deny his origin, 
nor disown his race. "For we are members one of 
another/' 

But this is true in a more restricted sense. There are 
the ties of consanguinity, and the family union, which 
bind different members in varying numbers, and thus 
establish a closer and more intimate fellowship. What 
attachments are thus formed — -indeed this union has its 
beginning in the tenderest emotions of the heart— what 
offices of kindness and affection spring out of it — how 
cheerfully does each bear the other's burdens — how 
jealous of each other's character — if one member suffer, 
all suffer with him. Honor and success achieved by one, 
are reflected upon, and enjoyed in a degree by ail; while 
the misfortune and sorrow visited upon one, cast their 
shadow over all. If a parent disown, or maltreat his 
children; a wife desert or calumniate her husband, or a 
husband his wife; if a child neglect, or distress a parent, 
or children turn against each other; how soon the world 
even, will see such departures from holy duty, and 
denounce the guilty ones as destitute of common human- 
ity; because they encroach upon their sacred bond of 
union, and do violence to those better feelings, which 
should be cherished for their near kindred in the flesh. 
When the divine compassion is to be set forth, the most 
forcible illustration is taken from the parental relation. 
The Psalmist says, "Like as a father pitieth his own 
children, even so is the Lord merciful unto them that 
fear him. v * Malachi speaks of the Lord in the last day, 
" sparing his children, as a man spare th his own son 
that serveth hiin."f Our Saviour exhibits the Father's 



*Ps. ciii: 13. 



fMaL iii: 17. 



16 



SERMON I. 



willingness to give to them that ask him, by the earthly 
parent's conduct to his children. "What man is there 
of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a 
stone ? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent ? 
If ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall your Father which 
is in heaven give good things to them that ask hiin."* 
When the same Saviour would picture our heavenly 
Father yearning over his sinning offspring, and rejoicing 
over their safe return ; does he not tell us the parable of 
the prodigal son "going into a far country," — "wasting 
his substance with riotous living," "coming to himself" 
in his low estate, returning home, "seen a great way off," 
embraced affectionately, and restored, amid feasting and 
rejoicing; while to the complaining son it is said: "It 
was meet that we should make merry and be glad, for 
this thy brother was dead, and is alive again, and was 
lost, and is found." j And when the wise man would 
represent the faithfulness of our Lord, he says " there is 
a friend who sticketh closer than a brother/' J Thus we 
have the most restricted, but most intimate, of those 
relationships in which "we are members one of another." 

This is true socially. It is not only " not good that 
man should be alone," || but by his very nature, he is made 
to crave society and converse. The human heart is full of 
gifts for other hearts ; and each must unburden itself ? 
and bestow upon others, that it may have room to 
receive, and strength to carry what others bring, in the 
way of exchange and remuneration. Hence the friend- 
ships and associations of life — the circles and societies 



*Matt, vii: 9, 10, 11. 
JProv. xviii: 24, 



fLuke xv : 11-32. 
|| Gen. ii: 18. 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 



17 



of acquaintances and neighbors — mutual attentions and 
kindnesses — the interchange of favors and services — 
the general sorrows and sympathies in the midst of 
calamity and distress ) the reciprocation of congratula- 
tions and rejoicings, when success brings its abundant 
reward, and prosperity more than supplies every want. 
1 These circles and combinations of the equal, congenial 
and similar — these classes of the educated and ignorant, 
high and low, rich and poor, linked together by common 
affections, tastes, and pursuits, are again united in the 
large and populous community, town or city; and still 
are subject to the same mutual dependence and obliga- 
tion. They recognize the authority of one common 
system of law, have a variety of common interests; 
motives to co-operate in the use of the same means of 
protection, against the assassin, the burglar, and all other 
perpetrators and abettors of vice and crime ; as well as 
against the beginnings of the destructive conflagration — 
"the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and the 
sickness that destroyeth in the noon-clay. "* In all those 
avocations and employments, adopted as means of main- 
tenance, and to call forth human industry, skill and 
genius ; how closely they are bound together ; and how 
mutually dependent, for the varied objects of their labors. 
When prosperity is vouchsafed to one branch of enter- 
prise and effort, how all others feel the impetus, and 
partake in the advantages and resources it supplies. But 
if depression and calamity overshadow one, how soon 
they encroach upon the remainder ; and ail are made to 
feel their intimate relationship and dependence. Class 
may combine against class — the educated and ignorant, 



*Ps. xci: 6. 

9* 



18 



SERMON I. 



the employed and the employer, the rich and the poor, 
respectively, may band against each other; but how 
soon they agree upon terms of reconciliation; when they 
begin to find that they are all living for each other; and 
that the true happiness and prosperity of each, are best 
promoted, when the other knows no want, and is blessed 
with cheerfulness and abundance. How truly, therefore, 
it has been said — 

i ' Man thou hast a social spirit, and art deeply indebted to thy 
kind, 

Therefore claim not all thy rights; but yield, for thine own 
advantage. 

Society is a chain of obligations, and its links must support 
each other ; 

The branch cannot but wither, that is cut from the parent vine. 
Wouldst thou be a dweller in the woods, and cast away the 

cords that bind thee, 
Seeking, in thy bitterness or pride, to be exiled from thy fellows ? 
Behold the beasts shall hunt thee, weak, naked, houseless outcast. 
Disease and death shall track thee out, as bloodhounds, in the 

wilderness : 

Better to be vilest of the vile, in the hated company of men, 
Than to live a solitary wretch, dreading and wanting all things; 
Better to be chained to thy labor, in the dusky thoroughfares 
of life, 

Than to reign monarch of Sloth, in lonesome, savage freedom."* 

The text is true ecclesiastically, or as we are members 
of the one church or body of Christ. In this sense it was 
primarily used to the Ephesians, in order to enforce 
the importance of always adhering to the truth. 
Certain heathen philosophers had thought it lawful 
to be guilty of falsehood under peculiar circum- 

* Proverbial Philosophy. Subjection. 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 



19 



stances. *Menander had taught — " a lie is better 
than a hurtful truth/' Proctus, that "good is bet- 
ter than truth. " Darius, in Herodotus, "when a lie 
will profit let it be used." Plato, "he may lie who 
knows how to do it in a fit season." Maximus Tyrius, 
" there is nothing decorous in truth, but when it is 
profitable; yea, sometimes truth hurts, and a lie profits 
men." The apostle, knowing the strictness of Christ's 
morality, and that the practice of such principles would 
dissolve society, says to his Ephesian converts, " where- 
fore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his 
neighbor, for we are members one of another." f So 
likewise to the Romans the same apostle says: — "For as 
we have many members in one body, and all members 
have not the same office; so we, being many, are one 
body in Christ, and every one members one of another." j 
And to show the beauty and importance of Christian 
unity, and , guard them against the great sin of schism ; 
St. Paul takes the human body again as an illustration 7 
and, in 1 Cor. 12, enters upon a most conclusive 
argument, which places the principle of the text beyond 
the reach of contradiction. He says, "For as the body 
is one, and hath many members, and ail the members of 
that one body, being many, are one body; so also is 
Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
body"—" and have been all made to drink into one 
Spirit." "Grod hath tempered the body together," "'that 
there should be no schism in the body ; but that the 
members should have the same care one for another. 
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer 
with it; or one member be honored, all the members 



* See Whitby, in loco, f Eph. iv: 25. J Rom. xii: 4, 5. 



20 



SERMON I. 



rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and 
members in particular." Here then we have the highest, 
fullest and most refined sense in which the words of the 
text are true — a union set forth, the most sacred, impor- 
tant, and exalted; which, though illustrated and imper- 
fectly represented by material, visible things, because 
of our present feeble capacities, yet far transcends them; 
and in the same degree, that spirit is better than matter, 
and the soul is better than the body, in which it is 
temporarily tabernacled, and made to dwell. Because, 
to form this most intimate fellowship, and establish this 
closest union, the mighty power of the Holy Ghost 
arouses, and draws man's whole world of passions, 
emotions and energies; and imbues them with his own 
grace: by an outward ordinance of Christ's own appoint- 
ment, binds them together in a visible body, and renews 
them in the spirit of their minds; for, says the apostle, 
"by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, and are 
made to drink into one Spirit;"* they embrace one common 
"'faith once delivered to the saints ;"f they partake of the 
same table; and "walking in all the commandments and 
ordinances of the Lord, blameless," J they are "henceforth 
no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about 
with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and 
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 
but speaking the truth in love, they grow up into Him 
in all things, which is the head, even Christ : from whom 
the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by 
that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual 
working in the measure of every part, maketh increase 
of the body unto the edifying of itself in loye."|| They 



*1 Cor. xii: 13. 
J Lake i; 6. 



f Jude 3. 

||Eph. iv: 14-16. 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 



21 



are bound together in a common inheritance of the glad 
tidings of the Gospel — in common prayers and praises — 
joys and sorrows — exultations and misgivings — confes- 
sions and forgivenesses — humiliations and hallelujahs; 
so that they are ever realizing the comforting declaration 
of the Apostle to the Christians in Galatia : " ye are all 
one in Christ Jesus/ ; * and experiencing the truth of that 
comprehensive article of the Christian faith, " the com- 
munion of saints :"*}" and at that solemn hour "when the 
silver cord is about to be loosed, the golden bowl broken, 
and the pitcher to be broken at the fountain /'J when all 
other ties are to be separated, and unions dissolved ; they 
feel that this cannot be affected : but that whether 
" strangers and pilgrims on the earth/' || and children of 
change, care and sorrow ; or partaking of the rest of the 
paradise of God; they are still members one of another/' 
" knit together in one communion and fellowship in the 
mystical body of Christ our Lord/ ; § death interposing 
only a veil between the seen and the unseen; and opening 
clearer views of that eternal world, to those who have 
now " fought the good fight, finished their course, and 
kept the faith."^[ What though the Christian shall unite 
with them no more in any earthly relation or condition; 
in the struggles, conquests, or vicissitudes of this 
life ; what though as the wife, the husband, the father, the 
child, the companion and friend; each shall be known to 
the other as such, no more forever; and he must work 
out his day of probation without the comfort of their 
presence, the aid of their counsel, the odor of their piety, 



*Gal. iii: 28. 
JEcol. xii: 6. 

\ Collect for All-Saints' Day. 



f Apostles' Creed. 
||Heb. xi: 13. 
^2 Tim. iv: 7. 



22 



SERMON > I . 



and the instruction of their example; yet he is still bound 
to them; is "one with them in Christ Jesus and whilst 
he follows his Saviour, neither the calamities of earth, 
nor time, nor change, "nor death, nor life, nor angels, 
nor principalites, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
creature, shall be able to separate him from"* them in 
that spirit world, which is so mysterious to contemplate ; 
but which it will be so blissful and rapturous, to enter, 
understand, and enjoy. 

In a more extended sense, the text is true politically r . 
"We are members one of another," in avast and growing 
nation; and we cannot fail to have our proportionate 
share in her success and triumph, or her crimes and mis- 
fortunes. United under one system of government, and 
contributing to its support — generally, speaking a com- 
mon language — having common interests, and occupy- 
ing a continuous territory — we cannot fail to recognize 
the strong bond which unites us together as one people. 
Insult offered to any public functionary is made a 
national concern — invasion of the most remote portion 
of the land calls forth the indignation and resistance of 
the whole people ; and as a unit they act, when the 
honor and character of the nation are called in question. 
With an enterprising spirit abroad — the whole land 
veined with channels of communication — knowledge 
widely diffused, and intelligence everywhere in cease- 
less circulation ; we become a vast family with common 
interests — closely bound together, and ready to travel 
with the current; without considering the character of 



fRom. viii: 38-39. 



MUTUAL PEPIUDENCE. 



the company, with whom we are journeying, or the haven 
towards which we are hastening. Habit, taste, custom, 
opinion and sentiment, are contagious \ and therefore 
every people have common features and peculiarities, 
which distinguish them from others \ and give them a 
similarity and individuality, which help to the formation 
of a uniform character, and a general standard of excel- 
lence or faithlessness. If we would, we cannot remain 
isolated, and unconnected with the mass : if there is 
an element of corruption or prosperity — of virtue or 
vice — of happiness or misery — success or ruin — we must, 
as individuals, feel its influence and power \ and, as it 
spreads, must rejoice in the extension of the one, or be 
made depressed, and anxious, by the prevalence of the 
other. It therefore becomes the duty of all, from time 
to time, to consider the state and prospects of the coun- 
try; and to be ever on their guard, lest the path of 
national virtue be forsaken, and the true " foundations" 
of national integrity and greatness " be out of course."* 
Such a period seems now at hand, when the pulpit should 
not keep silent ; but loudly sound the note of warning, 
and call all true lovers of our country, its morality and 
religion, to rise in their might; and, learning our true 
position as a people, stand manfully forth, to stem the 
current of evil, and maintain uprightness, fidelity, and 
truth. Merely political measures and principles, should 
not be brought forward ; but we should thoroughly study 
and analyze opinions, sentiments, practices, and princi- 
ples which, when permitted to prevail, reach our altars 
and firesides, and spread universal desolation and ruin — 



*Ps. lxxxii: 5. 



24 



SERMOX 1. 



which, scatter temporal disappointment and misery; and 
banish from the land that light, knowledge, and truth 
that are essentially necessary to man's eternal welfare 
and happiness. It is, therefore, proposed, by Divine 
permission, on the evening of the first Sunday in each 
month, during the coming winter and spring, to dis- 
course upon the dangers and hopes of the Republic — the 
forms of faith, and their efficiency, prevalent in the 
country; and the claims of that religion which seems 
best calculated to promote a national religious character, 
and save souls for time and eternity. Every man has a 
great question to answer for himself; and he cannot 
escape the responsibility of its consideration. What a 
broad field of inquiry is presented between Christianity 
and Infidelity; and between the exaltation of the mother 
of our Lord to an absolute control over her Divine Son, 
our Saviour Jesus Christ ; and the other extreme idea, 
which finds its advocates in a rapidly-growing Territory 
on our extreme TTest, that domestic purity is no longer to 
be preserved : and we must either permit this vast do- 
main to be entirely possessed by the growth of the most 
deadly errors, that have ever deluded the human family, 
according as men are moved by superstition or licen- 
tiousness : or else we must rise in our majesty, and taking 
the Bible, history, reason, experience and observation as 
our guides, establish the truth of God and its better 
ways, by such marks, testimony, and incontrovertible rea- 
soning ; that no one shall be led away, from want of 
knowledge of the will of God and the path of duty. The. 
question may arise, "'what are we among so many?" — 
but this will not excuse us from doing what tee can ; 
and if we are doing God's work, we may feel with the 



MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 



25 



prophet when he heard, " Not by might nor by power, 
but my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts/'* " The Lord 
of hosts will be with us j the God of Jacob will be our 
refuge." One impelling motive to effort, is the principle 
of the text, " we are members one of another and to en- 
force these words, and exhibit their great importance, I 
fyave endeavored to show you in how many senses they 
are true. Let men cut themselves off from all these 
relations if they can. And if they could , what would 
they have left ? Whence spring our comforts, joys, and 
truest happiness, but from our homes, the sacred pre- 
cincts of friendship, the gains of our honest occupations, 
the bosom of the Church, the treasures of the Gos- 
pel, and the mighty nation ; which is but an aggregate of 
many private homes and households ? Where were the 
need of the affections, if we will bind ourselves to no one, 
whose excellence and goodness can call them forth ? How 
secure the means of comfort and life, if we will unite 
with no others in earth's varied avocations ? How gain 
the Divine reconciliation, peace of mind, comfort in ad- 
versity, triumph in death, and bliss in eternity, if we 
refuse to enter the communion and fellowship of Christ 
and his apostles, where these are promised, pledged, and 
given to all those who are " faithful unto death?" How 
protect ourselves against the encroachments of the thief, 
the debauchee, the inebriate, the murderer, and every 
other debased perpetrator of crime; and preserve for our 
own advantage the fruits of our industry and labor \ if 
we will recognize no civil authority ', nor become united 
with others, under one government for mutual protection 



-Zech. iv: 6. 

8 



26 



SERMON I. 



and happiness ? These are all essential, divine relations ; 
and each must labor to keep them pure and uncontami- 
nated, to serve the ends for which they were designed ; 
or lose his portion of this life's blessings, and gain no 
final admission " to the general assembly and church of 
the first-born, which are written in heaven. 



*Heb. xii: 23. 



SERMON II. 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 

Romans xi : 20. — " Be not high minded, but fear." 

There is, in every man, a great natural proclivity to 
exultation and boastfulness. Favor, promotion, success 
and prosperity, are sure to develop them, and make 
them conspicuous, and sometimes offensive. To stand 
upon some lofty elevation, and look down on those beneath 
us — to be conscious of the possession of privileges and 
blessings, of which others are deprived — and to be exal- 
ted to stations from which others have been removed, is 
not in the least disagreeable to our feelings, and gene- 
rally leads us to " think of ourselves quite as highly as 
we ought to think; " * while we forget that we are neither 
perfect nor infallible — that we may commit the same 
errors that made others give place to us — that we hold 
our privileges and blessings by no certain tenure; and 
that a feeling of exultation and great self-confidence, is 
too often the precursor of disappointment and calamity; 
as the apostle said, "let him that thinketh he standeth, 
take heed lest he fall.""}* This is the feeling against which 
the Roman converts were cautioned in the words of the 



fl Cor. x: 12. 



28 



SERMON II. 



text. The ancient people of God had, on account of their 
unbelief, been deprived of those privileges and blessings, 
which, for so long a period they had enjoyed; and dis- 
placed from their lofty elevation as His chosen and pecu- 
liar nation, because they had rejected the Messiah — 
despised His word, and inflicted the ignominious death 
of the cross : while the Gentiles, among whom were these 
Romans, were receiving Christ, embracing His gospel, 
and obeying His word; and were thus securing that favor, 
and being promoted to that elevation, which the Jewish 
nation had forfeited and lost. This change the apostle 
represents by the cutting off the natural branches of an 
olive tree, and grafting others in their place, and says 
" if some of the branches be broken off, and thou being 
a wild olive tree, were grafted in among thein," " boast 
not against the branches/' " because of unbelief they 
were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not 
high-minded, but fear. For if God spared not the natu- 
ral branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee." As 
if he had said, there is in thee a corrupt nature — thou 
art surrounded by innumerable dangers — there are always 
motives and reasons to impel thee to turn back — one 
nation has already fallen through unbelief, why shouldst 
thou boast thyself over them? why be high-minded, 
when thou hast so much reason to fear? What though 
thou hast secured the favor of Jehovah, and from being 
"a stranger and foreigner, thou hast become a fellow 
citizen with the saints, and of the household of God?"* 
What though thou hast been raised from thy guilt and 
degradation, honored with the free pardon of the great 
Judge and Law-giver, and " blessed with all spiritual 



*Eph. ii: 19. 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



29 



blessings in heavenly places in Christ; " * yet thou must 
not boast, but rather fear ; because thou art still subject 
to "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the 
pride of life/'*)" because "the flesh lusteth against the 
spirit/' and "these are contrary the one to the other/' \ 
so that thou art ever in danger, and must not "rejoice in 
.thy boasting, for all such rejoicing is evil." || 

The words of the text, though primarily addressed to 
members of the church, furnish most profitable and timely 
counsel to us as a vast nation, and a most highly favored 
and prosperous people. Our advancement and growth 
have been so rapid and unceasing — we have been accus- 
tomed to look with such entire complacency and satisfac- 
tion, upon our elevation and superiority over most other 
nations — our undeveloped resources are still so abundant, 
and our progress seems so surely onward and upwards, 
that we have never failed to yield to the temptation to 
exult and boast ; whilst we have felt that with such a 
triumphant past — such a cheering present, and flattering 
future, there is very little cause to fear. But we must 
remember that national greatness and perpetuity, do not 
depend entirely upon the vastness, wealth, skill, enterprise 
and mere intellect of the population; nor the extent and 
fertility of the territory, nor the growth of mere art and 
science; but that Jehovah has revealed himself as the 
God of nations; and therefore His morality and religion 
must underlie every thing else, as a means of national 
exaltation and perpetuity. Whatever, therefore, endan- 
gers these, puts the whole fabric in jeopardy; and though 
every thing else be unmolested, and exerting its most 



*Eph.i: 3. 
J Gal. v: 17. 



fl John ii: 16. 

|| James iv : 16. 



3* 



30 



SERMON II. 



wholesome influence; yet if these are wanting, the days 
of that government are numbered. What pleasure can 
there be in admiring or boasting of a stately mansion — 
its beautiful proportions, elaborate workmanship — va- 
riety and richness of ornament, and perfect adapted- 
ness to the end proposed; if we know that there is a 
defect in its foundation, that will, sooner or later, induce 
dilapidation and ruin. Would not wisdom, and indeed 
every consideration, prompt us, without delay, to remedy 
the defect, and check the progress of the danger ? There- 
fore, the divine oracles furnish judicious and needful 
counsel for the nation in those words "Be not high- 
minded, but fear." The foundations are being under- 
mined — the morality and religion which Jehovah estab- 
lished : and therefore, His ministers should not keep 
silent; but raise their voices in the sanctuary, point out 
the danger, and " tell the people their sins." Simple 
questions of national policy — subjects of ordinary legisla- 
tion — and affecting the pursuits and common secular 
interests of men, are inappropriate to the Lord's day, and 
His place of worship — but sin, departures from the 
revealed will of God — and denial of His providence and 
authority; should be more earnestly and emphatically set 
forth, in proportion as they are practiced by the masses, 
and become general in the nation. Having shown on a 
former occasion how intimately connected we are "as 
members one of another," we have now presented, as the 
subject of the second of our monthly discourses — the 
clangers of the nation — those things which should pre- 
vent our being high minded, and that we should greatly 
fear , because they relate to morality and religion. 

There is wanting in our midst an enlightened and 
high-toned patriotism. This is the noblest passion that 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 31 

enters as an element into the character of the faithful 
citizen. Its aim is to guard the rights, protect the repu- 
tation, and promote the prosperity of the whole country. 
It is opposed to individual selfishness — does not charge 
itself with the guardianship of mere local interests ; but 
is concerned for the welfare and exaltation of the whole 
'body politic. Although a man may be a patriot without 
being a Christian, yet is not patriotism akin to, if it be 
not, a Christian virtue itself? Does it not include love 
to our neighbor? enjoin us to labor for his happiness and 
improvement? and consecrate our services, and talents, to 
secure his elevation, and greatest good? How, indeed, 
could a separate people have ever existed without the 
carrying out of these principles? And does not the 
Bible teach the same? Did not the first nation ever 
known have its beginning, and preserve its existence, by 
resting upon these, as a foundation? When the elders 
of the Jews besought our Saviour to heal the centurion's 
servant, they gave as a reason for their earnest entreaty 
that he, though a Gentile from Rome, " loved their nation 
and had built them a synagogue;"* thus showing that 
what was commendable in a foreigner, must have been 
regarded as indispensable in one of their own people. 
So, likewise, Caiaphas asserts and enforces the highest 
exercise of patriotism, in order to accomplish the death 
of our Saviour, when he said " ye do not consider that it 
is expedient for us that one man should die for the peo- 
ple, and that the whole nation perish not." f When 
Jesus was to be accused to Pilate, the burden of the 
harangue of the multitude was, " -We found this fellow 
perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to 



~ A ' Luke vii : 5. 



j John xi: 50. 



32 



SERMON II. 



Ccesar"* In their estimation He was not a faithful citi- 
zen, no lover of his country; but looked to the promotion 
of His own selfish and ambitious ends; "saying that He 
himself is Christ a king." And did Christ, or His apos- 
tles, ever rebuke the faithful soldier, whose business it 
was, constantly to expose his life in the service of his 
country? And has he not always good authority for 
yielding to the influence of this passion, when there is a 
righteous cause, in those emphatic words of St. Paul, 
"Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of 
your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all."f "Hereby 
perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his 
life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the 
brethren." j The Gospel, therefore, furnishes the highest 
authority, the strongest motives, and the most convincing 
reasons for the cultivation and exhibition of patriotism, 
even in the last extreme to which it can be carried, the 
sacrifice of life. Have we not had its most perfect mani- 
festations, in those great men in our past history, who 
were accustomed to bow to the authority of that Gospel, 
and guide their conduct by its sacred principles? And 
why should we not call it a moral virtue, yea, even a 
G hr istian grace ? 

But where shall we find its living and bright exam- 
ples? those epistles which may be known and read 
of all men?" || Are they in the public service? at 
the helm of government? in her varied offices? consecra- 
ting their time, energies and abilities to protect her rights ? 
husband her resources ? elevate her character ? call forth 
her undeveloped wealth? and promote the peace, good 



*Luke xxiii: 2. 
%\ John Hi: 16- 



fPhil. ii: 17. 

|| 2 Cor. hi: 2. 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



33 



order, morality, and highest welfare of her growing and 
impulsive millions ? While we may see here, and there, a 
scattered few, like the more brilliant stars in a cloudy 
night, whose motto is, "pro Deo, pro patria," "for God, 
and for my country;" there are almost unnumbered 
voices coming back to us, in reply to our interrogatories ; 
crying, selfishness, ambition, covetousness, corruption, 
degeneracy and unblushing , boldest theft! And is there 
not peril in such a state of things ? Can these passions, 
and departures from the plainest principles of morality, 
set patriotism to the one side; or trample it under foot as 
a worthless thing, and yet preserve harmony, peace and 
prosperity ? Will the many be thus content to labor for 
the few ? Will the multitude be satisfied to move in the 
shadow of their glory ? Will they tolerate breaches of 
the principles of common honesty and rectitude, and call 
their perpetrators, "Honorable Masters," "Statesmen?" 
They may endure for a time; but change will come at 
last; when 'commotion, discord and anarchy will be seen : 
or which is far better, they may feel the necessity of 
guiding their conduct by that golden rule, given to God's 
ancient people. "Thou shalt provide out of all the peo- 
ple, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating 
covetousness, and place such to be rulers." * 

There is a spirit of insubordination prevalent in the 
land, that is always dangerous wherever it is permitted 
generally to prevail. Submission to duly constituted 
authority, and obedience of its laws, are not only essential 
to good order and prosperity; but are enjoined in the word 
of God as religious duties. Starting with the fundamen- 



*Ex. xviii: 21. 



34 



SERMON II. 



tal principle that God is the source of all power — the 
Author, not only of the family and church, but also of the 
State ; the Scriptures enjoin our civil, with the same 
holy sanctions, that they do our moral and religious obli- 
gations. From our Saviour's lips came those well known 
words — in reply to the Jews' artful question, "Is it law- 
ful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?" "Render unto 
Caesar the things which are Caesar's." * So likewise 
St. Paul also says: "Let every soul be subject unto the 
higher powers. For there is no power but of God; the 
powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, there- 
fore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God ; 
and they that resist shall receive to themselves damna- 
tion." "For he is the minister of God to thee for good. 
But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid ; for he bear- 
eth not the sword in vain j for he is the minister of God, 
a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. 
Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only for wrath, but 
also for conscience sake. For, for this cause pay ye tribute 
also; for they are God's ministers, attending continually 
upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues : 
tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom custom ; 
fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." f " Submit 
yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. 
As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of malicious- 
ness, but as the servants of God." j Consistently with these 
principles, we find the church always remembering in her 
prayers, "the President of these United States, and all 
others in authority." She prays that we may be 
delivered from all " sedition, privy conspiracy and rebel- 



s' Matt, xxii: 21. fRom. xiii: 1-7. Jl Peter ii: 13, 16. 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



35 



lion," and for a blessing upon all " Christian rulers and 
magistrates, that they may execute justice and main- 
tain truth." * 

But with our civil duties thus clearly set forth, 
and enjoined with such sacred sanctions, we cannot be 
ignorant of the fact that there is a growing opposition 
to these principles — that popular risings are justified by 
men of influence and intelligence; and that when the 
process of the law is slow and tedious ; or its executors 
thought to be disqualified, and indifferent in the discharge 
of their trust ; or there is a prospect of the escape of a 
criminal from the force of circumstances, or through the 
influence and power of legal council; it is deemed better 
and safer for the citizens to take authority in their own 
hands ; by suspending, temporarily, the present incumbents 
of office, and inflicting that punishment which they judge 
the offence deserves. Justice may thus sometimes be 
attained, and a present evil checked : but what a danger- 
ous principle is thus endorsed — what an irresponsible 
tribunal you set up — what a door you open, whence may 
issue evils, that will never run their course, till there shall 
be no authority to supplant — no laws to set aside — no 
confederacy and government to destroy. You at once 
enthrone mere physical force, without reason to guide, 
nor judgment to discriminate, nor fear of superior power, 
to check its headlong precipitancy : but impulsive, relent- 
less, and maddened and exasperated by every successful 
exercise of its usurped privilege and authority; and unless 
checked, it will not only destroy the civil rule; but 
encroach upon all the relations of life — appropriate the 
gains of industry; and with the maxim emblazoned upon 



^Book of Common Prayer. 



36 



SERMON II. 



its banner, that " might makes right," it will raise 
the triumphant shout of liberty. Who has not known how 
all this has been shadowed forth • and indeed, in a degree 
realized, in the risings of the multitude in our cities, and 
the desolation that followed in their pathway? Does 
that spirit of insubordination still exist, and only need 
the semblance of a provocation to call it forth; who can- 
not see the danger that it threatens, and the calamity that 
it may produce ? 

Strange and contradictory as it may seem, even with 
a spirit of insubordination abroad, that justifies itself on 
the ground of the inefficiency of duly constituted au- 
thority ; there is also a sympathy with criminals, and 
their crimes, that constitutes another element of danger, 
that should arrest our most serious attention. It is not 
that holy feeling of charity, and compassion, which the 
victims of great guilt should ever excite ; while we ac- 
knowledge the justice and necessity of the prescribed 
punishment: but that which interferes with the penalty 
of the law; diminishes its severity; and, when it can, sets 
the criminal free ; to continue his wicked career, and 
sink deeper and deeper, in soul-destroying degeneracy. 
A depraved man, nurtured in the midst of scenes of vice — 
accustomed to indulge every pernicious passion — a plague 
spot upon the community, and the dread of all with whom 
he comes in contact — goes and maddens himself with 
drink, and then is ready for a contest. He soon meets 
an antagonist : with a few preliminaries of crimination 
and recrimination, mingled with heaven-defying oaths, 
he lays his opponent prostrate in death. Then follows 
the arrest and imprisonment; a feeling of indignation 
spreads through the community; hundreds are ready to 
unite, animated by the spirit just alluded to, and burst 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



37 



the prison doors, and inflict immediate punishment; lest 

he may escape the vigilance of the officers, and the tardy 
arm of the law. Soon the trial follows; evidence cannot 
be resisted; the counsel for the defence can find no 
technicality nor insanity, under which to shield him, 
and sentence of death is pronounced. And now follows 
the reaction. A haart-broken wife, and a family of 
young and unprotected children, are daily seen making 
their gloomy way to that convict's cell. How melancholy 
the sight ! Public sympathy is awakened : but in the 
meantime, the widow and children, whom the murderer 
has deprived of father and husband, are forgotten; and 
for him alone compassion is felt and cherished. He is 
represented as having always been a passionate boy; 
without proper education and training; it may be his 
father was an inebriate, and perhaps his mother, too. He 
himself was maddened with liquor; he is now repentant, 
and why should the heavy penalty of the law be visited 
upon him ?, Thousands at once sign a petition for execu- 
tive clemency; among whom are several benevolent, but 
sometimes inconsiderate clergymen : and if they do not 
gain 2 full pardon; he at least escapes death; to spend 
a few years in a comfortable, well-ordered palace; 
where, it is true, he is deprived of liberty, and obliged 
to labor ; but, where he is fed and clothed and warmed, 
in such a manner that his home is indeed a palace, 
in all its appliances ; compared to the cellar, gar- 
ret, or hovel; where he has been accustomed to lead 
his miserable life, with his neglected household ; when 
not absent upon his mission of vice and wickedness. 
If this is not an exaggerated and over-wrought pic- 
ture, are we not thus, in one sense, paying a bounty 
upon crime? Far be it from me to depreciate, or 

4 



38 



SERMON II. 



check, the efforts of benevolence and holy charity, for 
the true good of the unfortunate victims of their own 
base passions : but it is possible to go from the extreme 
of inhumanity, brought to light by Howard and others, 
in the dungeons of European prisons; to that excess of 
care and sympathy for the guilty 5 that shall tempt them 
to the commission of iniquity, that they may enjoy the 
noble charities which your liberality has provided. This 
sympathy is manifested also in that unwillingness to 
convict an offender, when testimony seems conclusive. 
Contrast the very small number of convictions and exe- 
cutions in this community, with the many murders that 
have been committed. Were we not told at the time of 
the last infliction of capital punishment in this city, that 
there had been but one other in thirty-six years, and 
only three in the county. But what a melancholy record 
of crime darkens the pages of your public journals; and 
how numerous the murders, during the same period ! 
What significant and almost incredible facts ! 

See, too, this sympathy in another form ; when the 
calamity of flying trains, broken up in sudden collisions, 
and of burning and sinking steamers; has consigned to a 
sudden and agonizing death, fifties and hundreds of 
human beings; when no one has ever yet been found 
who, it seems, can be justly charged with such wholesale 
murders. The public heart, that can so bleed at the 
idea of one fellow being, paying the penalty of willful 
murder upon the gallows ; can contemplate the mangled 
bodies of men, women, and children, by the roadside or 
at the station-house ; and hear their shrieks of agony, as 
they sink into the ocean's depths to rise no more ; and 
experience only a temporary shudder of horror: while 
the perpetrators of these common calamities are simply 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



39 



reprimanded for their carelessness, or dismissed from 
their employers' service. Men are constantly robbing 
the widow and fatherless, and making their fellow-beings 
bankrupt, under the shelter of an incorporation act; or 
by making an assignment, it may be of fictitious capital, 
when they have finished the career they have marked 
out. Guilt of the most odious character is all the time 
abroad — not only unpunished, but 'bold and unblushing : 
and this because, in a greater or less degree, there is a 
sympathy with criminals and their crimes — generally no 
just and holy appreciation of the true nature of human 
guilt. M 

Another danger which, as a nation, we have to fear} 
arises from a divorce between education and religion, in 
our public and most select schools — two things which 
were united by divine command) and "what therefore 
God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." * If 
we acknowledge the universal prevalence of human deprav- 
ity — and is there any principle more clearly established, 
Independent of the indisputable testimony of the divine 
revelation ? — we must see the necessity of the introduc- 
tion of that leaven, our holy religion, which shall change 
the corrupt nature, and assimilate it to itself. With moral) 
intellectual and physical elements in man; by what rea- 
soning can it be shown, that that is education when only 
one or two, of the three, receive care and training ? Is 
not that unnatural growth, when the arms alone are 
exercised, and all other parts are kept motionless ? How 
little better than a brute, is the man who has simply 
cared for the development of the physical nature, while 
the intellectual and moral have remained unimproved. 



*Matt xix: 6. 



SERMON II. 



Or, if the moral alone is neglected, how often he be- 
comes an intellectual brute, with vigor of mind and body; 
but with a soul debased, and a heart so corrupt, that there 
shall be nothing odious in sin,' nor repulsive in crime. 
But this divorce has taken place; and we have the fruits 
of the separation in all our broad land. To train the 
intellect simply, we only half accomplish our work. We 
make men capable of devising and inventing those 
varied schemes of deception and intrigue, in which their 
depraved nature delights. And does not the condition 
of the land give evidence of the power of this depravity, 
and the influence of this merely intellectual education ? 
What a system of dishonesty and knavery in trade — 
what efforts to overreach and circumvent in contracts — 
what startling and astounding developments are every 
week arresting our attention in the public journals — 
revelations of great contrivances of knavery — the vil- 
lainy of men who have for years enjoyed public confi- 
dence^ — the monstrous frauds of the cunning — the boldness 
of their acts — the long period during which they have 
been practiced, and the vast sums of money they have 
purloined — -the suffering and poverty they have caused, 
and the premature deaths that have followed their career, 
of making themselves rich, while they made othera 
wretched, And yet, these are all highly educated men, 
of general information, agreeable address ; and they 
moved in refined society. Was it not a significant fact, 
recently made known, when the costly mansion of an 
absconding private banker was examined, it was found 
to contain a library worth five thousand dollars. If there 
is safety in books simply — if stores of knowledge are all 
that is required— if general intelligence in literature, the 
arts and sciences, will hedge up the human heart ; bring- 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



41 



ing into subjection the depravity within, and keeping 
out the temptations of u the world, the flesh and the 
devil then this man should have been a model of 
human excellence and integrity. If intellectual culture 
alone will bring every blessing that a nation can require 
for its exaltation and perpetuity; its purity of morals, hon- 
esty, justice, rectitude, and truth; then we ought to be 
distinguished for all these : but what excess of vice ; what 
varied forms of transgression, what modes of appealing 
to the corruption of man, are there to be found ; that do 
not secure their advocates and victims here, in the midst 
of as general intellectual light, as shines upon any other 
part of the habitable globe. But have we not plague 
spots daily revealing themselves; that startle by their 
magnitude; astonish by their number ; excite dread by 
their virulence, and give evidence of a degree of cor- 
ruption in the whole body ; which shows that education, 
without Christianity, is powerless, before the might of 
the corrupt principles of our sinful nature ? At this 
hour there is a people upon our western borders, trained 
in our schools, and with schools among themselves, that 
have grown from one man; to be a community, number- 
ing their accessions in this, and foreign lands, by hundreds 
of thousands : and yet they have set aside principles, 
that enter into the very existence of social life and 
domestic purity — a community whose very being is an 
anomaly and a wonder — that has its being, indeed, because 
there was not that high-toned morality in the land necessary 
to check its beginning — and soon to ask admittance into our 
confederacy as a sovereign state ; when a contest must 
commence, that will result favorably, or unfavorably, to the 
best interests of our country ; according as our legislators 
shall bow to the authority of God's word, or be guided 

4* 



42 



SERMON II. 



only by mere intellect, without the light of Christianity. 
With the threefold nature rightly educated, man becomes 
all that duty, his country, and his Maker require ; with 
religion banished, and morality set aside, he has within 
him, a power, that can make him a monster of vice. 

The general use of intoxicating drinks constitutes 
another danger; which is not less to be dreaded because 
long practiced j and because the history of the past is filled 
with sad mementoes of its devastating effects. The vice 
of drunkenness has from the beginning, been presented 
in Holy Scripture, as not only deserving of universal 
reprobation, but as very especially offensive to the Deity. 
With almost innumerable instances of its tremendous 
power, over all that is attractive in genius, vigorous in 
intellect, winning in affection, and strong in rectitude — 
with testimony that cannot be gainsayed, of its supremacy 
over all the promises and prospects that wealth, ambition, 
elevation and dominion can exhibit \ it is not now neces- 
sary, if there were time, to present statistics and arguments 
to establish this almost indomitable sway over its con- 
firmed votaries. It is not probable that I have many 
inebriates within hearing to-night. If the use were con- 
fined to the inebriates of the land, the vice of intemper- 
ance would soon run its course. But our danger consists 
in the general prevalence of the practice; by which it 
gains this mighty power over every thing almost, that can 
be arrayed against it. It is the multiplication, in every 
street of every town, every village and neighborhood of 
our land, of the low haunts, where mixtures are dealt out, 
that cannot fail to spread desolation. To this statement 
is it replied that these places are frequented most gene- 
rally by the low and degraded, and the foreigner, who is 
accustomed to this kind of indulgence ; and that soon the 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



43 



. legislature* will close these sinks of vice and corruption, 
under the force of the growing numbers in favor of pro- 
hibition ? Most devoutly is such an event to be desired. 
And will our danger then be past ? Can there be a uni- 
versal rejoicing then at the banishment of a monster 
from the land ? Do we not know that he comes to us in 
v.arious forms; that as there is a difference in the quality 
and texture of the rich and poor man's clothing ; a dif- 
ference in their articles of food and furniture, that there 
is also in their drinks ? that a kind of refinement is 
carried into these, as well as other things ? and therefore 
the whole danger is not thus reached. Who does not 
know, that while many men would not frequent the com- 
mon place of public concourse, the scene of the lowest 
indulgence, and would even give their votes for prohibi- 
bition \ they have nevertheless in their own dwellings the 
safe deposit of choicest and costliest beverages, which 
are habitually used; and whose influence is not less fasci- 
nating and destructive ? Who does not know that the 
same indulgence may be obtained at richly furnished and 
decorated public haunts, by paying a remunerating price ? 
And who does not recognize the influence of these prac- 
tices in the appearance, deportment, and exhilarated spirits 
of their devotees ? In the habits of the two classes, is 
there not a distinction without much difference ? Do 
they not lead to the same results ? Will not the ruin be 
as sad and disastrous ? Is not the reason dethroned, the 
sensibilities destroyed, and all that pertains to the great 
and noble in man, as surely wrecked in the one case, as 
the other ? You convey the same idea, though not so 
offensively, when you give the lie direct; as when you 

* Prohibition, in a limited way, was established in Pennsylvania, 
October 1st, 1855, 



44 



SERMON II. 



say, Sir, you do not speak the truth; or, you do not 
adhere to the principles of veracity. The poniard will 
cause death as certainly as the broadsword — the revolver 
as the musket — the rifle as the cannon-ball — the well- 
directed cut of the knife of refined steel, as the cleaver 
from the shambles — the rightly aimed blow of the highly 
polished, gold-headed iv alking -staff , as of the bludgeon, 
fashioned after that of "Cain, who was of that wicked 
one, and slew his brother." The danger lies in every 
form, in which this enemy can be presented ; as does the 
virulence of the poison in every covering, under which it 
may be concealed. When we contemplate the untold 
magnitude of the evil, and the proclivity of man to yield 
to the fascination, would it not be better to adopt the 
maxim of the apostle — u Touch not, taste not, handle 
not." 

For only a few moments longer can I allude to one 
other danger, that arrests our attention from the stand 
point we occupy in surveying the perils of the Republic. 
I allude to the luxury and extravagance manifested in 
the higher walks of life. The attentive reader of history 
need not be told that these were the beginnings of the 
decline and fall of ancient Republics. They awaken and 
foster such passions, create such artificial necessities, 
induce such indulgences, interfere with such holy duties, 
expose to such temptation, that the evils they bring with 
them may be called almost legion. For what is the 
general phrenzy for accumulation, that stops before no 
opposition, counts no cost, cheerfully exposes health and 
life, in laboring in new, unexplored and distant regions, 
unfavorable climates, and during successive years ? Is it 
that avarice is so common, and that the miser is so gene- 
rally abroad ? Do men wish to gather and hoard up in 



NATIONAL BANGERS, 



secure vaults, and bury in the earth ? No. Is it because 
they have become aware of the gross darkness pervading 
other lands ; and that they wish to send them the means 
of civilization and enlightenment ? Or have they a desire 
to exalt the condition of the masses at home ; and there- 
fore propose to endow institutions for their education, and 
the church with means for their conversion ? No. The 
aim seems to be neither to hoard, nor bestow in works of 
benevolence ; but very much like that of the rich man 
in the gospel, when he said, "soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, and be merry."* 
It seems to be, to have means, to invest in costly mansions, 
furniture, equipages, luxurious living, a succession of 
amusements, entertaiDinents, pleasures, personal decora- 
tions ; and thus be the envy of the multitude, and the 
subject of their converse. And as there are gradations 
in society, and the community; so these evils spread, and 
finally pervade all ranks, till all partake in the sad con- 
sequences they entail. Like a crowd ascending a stair- 
way ; where one step is no sooner vacated, than it is at 
once occupied by some one, or more, of the moving mass 
below ; so in communities, one class no sooner leaves a 
position that is occupied, and a pleasure that has been 
indulged, for something higher and not before enjoyed; 
than there is another ready to fill its place, and take up 
that which it has laid down ; and thus evil multiplies 
itself among all the ranks of mankind. 

And in these sad features of the land we are now consid- 
ering, must not woman, to a considerable extent, be 
involved ? Has she not countenanced and encouraged, 
if not originated and devised, much that now involves 



* Luke xii: 19. 



46 



SERMON II. 



the country in peril and difficulty ? Has not her pride, 
love of ostentation, ambition and vanity, had their influ- 
ence in the expenditures, investments, usages, pleasures, 
and indulgences, that may all be embraced under the two 
heads, of luxury and extravagance ? And yet how dif- 
ferent is her true mission, her real greatness and glory. 
" Heaven's last, best gift/'* assigned to move in the 
noblest sphere, the possessor of the sweetest affections, 
endowed with powers and capacities to soften the hardest 
heart, remove the roughest asperities of character, lighten 
the darkest home, soothe the most excited mind, dimin- 
ish the acutest pain, and spread peace, comfort and bliss 
in her every pathway ; woman becomes a piece of ani- 
mated clay hi the hands of the artisan', to be decked for a 
show; a child to be charmed with glitter and tinsel; and 
burying her whole soul, her very self, beneath an arti- 
ficial creation of wealth and folly, she bows a willing 
slave of pride and a sinful world. Place such an one by 
the side of that model of her sex,f one of England's 
noblest daughters, a child of affluence, refinement, edu- 
cation and personal charms ; who, with her devoted asso- 
ciates, near forty in number, have now left their native 
land to go to the banks of the Alma, to minister to the 
wants of poor soldiers, wounded in battle, or prostrate in 
sickness. Who adds dignity, honor and glory to her sex; 
she who is clothed in gaiety and costliness, with scarce a 
thought beyond herself, for others' good ; but ambi- 
tious to fill all eyes : or she who speaks the words of com- 
fort, binds up the bleeding wound, and soothes the 

* Milton's Paradise Lost. 

t Miss Nightingale and her companions in the Crimea — and I 
may now add, the devoted women at Norfolk and Portsmouth. 



NATIONAL DANGERS. 



47 



troubled spirit on the battle -field, or in the hospital ? 0, 
woman ! 

u Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave,"^ 

be an example of humanity, endurance, devotion and 
faithfulness. Thy sphere is not less useful because 
unseen ) not less honorable because retired ; not less glo- 
rious, because removed from the din and strife of the 
outward world. 

Such are some of the dangers of the Republic. Study 
them carefully, weigh their whole length, and depth, and 
height and breadth, and bend all your energies to check 
their progress, and avert the evils they threaten. 

* " Not she with traitorous kiss her Saviour stung, 
Not she denied him with unholy tongue : 
She, while apostles shrunk, could danger brave, 
Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave. " 

Woman — a Poem by Barret, 
Quoted in KebWs Christian Year, St. Thomas' Day. 



SERMON III. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 

Hebrews iii: 12. — -"Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any 
of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living 
God." 

During the preparation of our last monthly discourse, 
which was devoted to the consideration of some of the 
more prominent dangers that threaten morality and reli- 
gion in the nation, it was designed to include the subject 
of the present. But the topics which then passed under 
review, consumed so much time, that it became neces- 
sary to postpone to this occasion, the consideration of 
unbelief, in respect to its causes, and the modes of its 
manifestation. I can desire no more appropriate words 
to serve as a foundation, than that expressive and 
emphatic caution, and admonition, of the great and very 
discriminating apostle, already announced. " Take heed," 
&c. 

The Israelites, after the delivery of the law on Mount 
Sinai, were enjoined to go forth, and take possession 
of the land of Canaan; and establish that worship of 
the true G-od, and practice those varied duties, which 
that law set forth : and God promised that He would 
drive out the wicked inhabitants; that they might enjoy 
undisturbed, their long anticipated inheritance. But 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 49 

tliey did not believe the divine promises, feared to 
encounter the inhabitants of the country, and desired to 
turn back into Egypt, whence they had been so miracu- 
lously led forth. The apostle makes use of this fact in 
the history of the Jews, in moving the Hebrew Christians 
to a faithful discharge of their duties. They had 
received and embraced the gospel, were commanded to 
go forth into a wicked world, and set up its altars, 
establish its pure spiritual worship, and practice that 
" holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord/'* 
But they had to encounter greater dangers, and more 
terrible opposition than did the Jews; there was less 
probability of their success in the promulgation of the 
Gospel, than there was that Moses and his followers, 
would be able to drive out the in ntants of Canaan; 
and therefore they were exposed t ^reater temptations 
to distrust the promises of God; and surrounded with 
stronger inducements to turn back to their former 
bondage to sin. In view of their greater peril, and 
with a full knowledge of their better foundation for the 
most undoubting confidence, and unyielding perseve- 
rance, the faithful apostle wisely and earnestly enjoins 
them to "take heed/' &c. 

Unbelief, in some one or more of its varied forms, has 
always been the great mountain barrier in the way of 
the progress of Christianity. It is entirely congenial 
with the corrupt passions and inclinations of the human 
heart. Whenever the one true, living and Supreme 
God has been presented, with His perfections, and 
solemnizing truths and principles, its unvarying excla- 
mation has been, "away with Him/'f "we will not have 



*Heb. xii: 14. 



fJobn xix: 15. 



50 



SERMON III. 



this man to reign over us/'* "we know not from whence 
He is."f At the early planting of Christianity, it appeared 
in Jerusa demand the surrounding country , under the form 
of Judaism; in Corinth it spoke from the haunts of licen- 
tiousness; in Athens and other Grecian cities, its oracle 
was a vain philosophy; at Rome it boasted, and chal- 
lenged, and talked vociferously, in a long established 
and generally prevalent pagan mythology; among the 
neighboring, as well as far distant nations, it assumed a 
bolder front, and more repulsive form, as it entrenched 
itself in the ignorance, degradation, and brutality of 
barbarism. When in the course of successive years of 
faithful, self-denying labors on the part of the apostles 
and others, it had been in some degree overcome; and 
its former advocates were led to adopt the faith of Christ; 
it then, for several generations, appeared under the form 
of heresies, in the church itself; exciting controversy 
and contention, diverting the attention of the ministry 
from the work of converting souls, to the decision of 
points of faith ; and thus unsettling the minds of many, 
and causing separations, confusion and distrust. During 
the long period of the middle or dark ages, it seemed 
content to repose in ignorance, apathy, and seeming 
indifference ; when the church herself had lost her zeal 
and devotion, and was resting calmly and unconcernedly, 
under the enchanting spell of her superstition, and the 
deadening influence of her formalism. But when this 
spell was broken, at the period of the Reformation, and 
these superstitions were shaken off; when primitive 
truth was restored, and formalism gave way to the light 
of God's own pure word ; unbelief awoke also in more 



*Luke xix: 14. 



fJohn ix: 29. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 51 



than pristine power, and put forth her strongest energies, 
to check the progress of primitive Christianity, which 
was doing a noble and glorious work, not only against a 
usurper, and his pernicious errors; but changing the 
dark spots of sin, into scenes of loveliness and beauty, 
throughout extensive regions of country. It now had 
new weapons to wield, since the discovery of the art of 
printing, and other facilities for the communication of 
thought; and it may be said that unbelief used her 
every effort to show her own power, and the weakness of 
Christianity. Her attack was direct, bold, persevering, 
and in open day. Various works from master minds, 
upon the miracles, the authenticity of the Scriptures, 
their contradictions, inspiration, and the divinity of our 
Lord : indeed every point that was regarded as exposed, 
became the object of its attack; and down to the 
beginning of the present century, our religion has had 
constantly to keep her champions in the field, to meet an 
open, persevering foe. But in our day we find no such 
demonstrations of the power of unbelief. Her attack is 
not direct, nor open, nor in form and manner as it was 
fifty and a hundred years ago. We have no Paines, nor 
Humes, nor Yoltaires. When was a new edition of 
their works published ? What bookseller ever disposes 
of a copy, or has one even asked for? Is it because they 
were so effectually vanquished by their opponents ? for 
a noble band of lion-hearted, eagle-eyed defenders of 
the faith arose, and stood unflinchingly at the gates of 
the citidal of divine truth : or is it because unbelief has 
changed the mode of its warfare, and now attacks 
covertly, in the garb of a friend, and with treacherous 
arts ? We do know that much of the old armor is laid 
aside; that the regiments have been disbanded; and that 



52 



SERMON III. 



we seldom meet in uniform, even a scattered soldier of her 
former boasted army; a man who calls himself an infidel, 
and stands ready to defend his cause, as every true 
hearted soldier always should. Yet when has there been 
an age of greater and more deadly unbelief ? It is our 
present purpose to set forth some of its causes, and 
jnodes of manifestation. 

One of the most common forms under which it is ex- 
hibited, is the denial of God's providence in the material 
world, and human affairs. There is no doctrine of Holy 
Scripture more clearly revealed than this one of the 
ceaseless, special interposition of the Deity. He is rep- 
resented not only as the Creator of all things, but as 
having all things under His control. When He threat- 
ened the transgressors, in ancient times, it was with a 
suspension of natural law, as when famine was to be sent 
as the punishment of guilt. He had already promised 
that, generally, "seed time and harvest should never 
cease and famine must be the result of an interruption 
of that regularity, which the Creator had established. 
Our Saviour gave the assurance of His constant care to 
His apostles, by telling them that " not even a sparrow 
falleth to the ground without our Father," and that even 
" the very hairs of our head are all numbered. "f So, like- 
wise, when He wished to check an inordinate anxiety for 
earthly things, He directed their attention to the fowls of 
the air, as enjoying His Father's watchful guardianship, 
and says, " Are ye not much better than they ?" — and 
then to the flowers and grass of the field, and asks, "If 
God so clothe the _ ~*ass of the field, shall he not much 
more clothe you, 50 of little faith ?"J Yea, the prophet 



*Gen. viii: 22. fMatt. x: 29, 30. J Matt: vi: 30. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 53 



asserts for Him still greater power, saying, " Behold the 
nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the 
small dust of the balance ; behold he taketh up the isles 
as a very little thing. " " It is he that sitteth upon the 
circle of the earth ; that stretcheth out the heavens as a 
curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in."* 
•Upon this well established truth of God's ceaseless pro- 
vidence, the Church has framed her offices, and set forth 
special prayers — as "for Rain ;" " for Fair Weather ;" " in 
Time of Dearth and Famine;" "in Time of War and Tu- 
mults;" "'in Time of great Sickness and Mortality;" "for a 
Person going to sea/'f&c. — followed by thanksgivings for 
these, and other valuable interpositions. In the regular 
offices of the Church, we find the recognition of the same 
valuable truth ; and out of it, in past days, has issued 
that common idea among men, that God's hand is in 
everything ; and that His protection is to be sought in 
every difficulty and emergency. When the merchant 
was to send forth his ship upon the uncertain ocean, you 
found a prayer for its safety inscribed upon his bills of 
lading. When the civil authority called the people to 
thanksgiving for annual blessings, or fasting in depreca- 
tion of heavenly judgments, this providence was distinct- 
ly set forth in the official instrument, and closed with a 
petition to God to save the commonwealth. Did not our 
-first Congress, upon which was depending, under God, 
not only our liberty, but our very existence as a nation, 
have daily prayer, and enjoy the services of two of our 
own clergy, as its first chaplains — a respected presbyter, 
and the first Bishop of this Diocese, the venerable Bishop 

* Isaiah xl: 15, 22. 

f See Special Prayers and Thanksgivings, in Common Prayer 
Book. 

5* 



54 



SERMON III. 



White ? And when, in 1787, the Convention sat in 
Philadelphia to frame our Federal Constitution, days and 
weeks passed without any result, but differences of 
opinion and contentions; the celebrated Dr. Franklin 
arose and introduced a motion for daily prayers, saying, 
u In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when 
we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers for the 
Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and 
they were graciously answered. All of us, who were en- 
gaged in the struggle, must have observed frequent 
instances of a Superintending Providence in our favor. 
To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity 
of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our 
future national felicity. And have we now forgotten 
this powerful Friend ? Or do we imagine we no longer 
need His assistance ? I have lived, Sir, a long time 
(81 years), and the longer I live, the more convincing 
proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs 
of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground 
without His notice, is it probable that an empire can 
rise without His aid ? We have been assured, Sir, in 
the sacred writings, that 6 except the Lord build the 
house, they labor in vain that build it.' I therefore beg 
leave to move that henceforth prayers, imploring the 
assistance of heaven, and its blessing on our deliberations, 
be held in this assembly before we proceed to business, 
and that one or more of the - clergy of this city be re- 
quested to officiate in that service. "* This language, 
breathing the very spirit of dependence and weakness, 
and so clearly recognizing the divine agency in human 
affairs, and national prosperity, was addressed to Gen. 

* See Philadelphia Lectures, page 143. — Lecture by Bishop 
Potter : 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 55 

Washington, the presiding officer, who in the midst of 
the darkest hours of the Revolutionary struggle, made 
the silent forest his temple — the earth his kneeling- 
place — and, beneath the canopy of heaven, implored the 
protection of the same Almighty Being for the cause he 
had in hand. And can we now witness opposition to the 
continuance of prayer in our Legislative halls — in Con- 
gress, the Army and Navy — without feeling that there 
is growing up in our land, a denial of God's providence ? 
When the Church raises her voice in prayer in time of 
drought, famine, pestilence, or other heavenly judgment; 
do we not have evidence of want of confidence in such 
means for removing calamity ? Is not God's providence 
virtually abolished from the earth, in the estimation of 
large numbers ; and do we not hear of substitutes in its 
place — of an inexorable necessity in the immutability of 
nature's laws — and of a union of mighty agencies in the 
form of human skill, learning, foresight, invention, en- 
durance, and energy ? And does not here lurk a secret 
unbelief ? Because if you banish God from the material 
world, and human affairs; can you retain Him in His 
Word, and the mere spiritual things he enjoins ? For in 
banishing His providence, you destroy a portion of that 
Word where it is unequivocally set forth ? Can you take 
away one of the four walls of your dwelling, and expect 
it to stand ? Can you sever the main roots of the oak, 
and anticipate a successful resistance of the storm ? Take 
care, then, how you deny the providence of God — one of 
the deep-dug roots of "the tree of life," and one of "the 
walls of the city having twelve foundations, in which 
are the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb."* 
There are. certain theories, and pretended discoveries 



* Rer. xxi : 14. 



56 



SERMON III. 



of modern Science, which contain the seeds of the most 
dangerous unbelief. They have their advocates among 
the intelligent and the educated — the teachers and pro- 
fessors in our schools and colleges — are incorporated into 
much of our literature — have a place in our magazines 
and newspapers ; and will gradually be introduced into 
the elementary books of instruction, and the text-books 
of our higher seminaries of learning. They virtually 
contradict the statements, and abolish the God, of the 
Bible; while they subvert that religion which the Holy 
Scriptures set forth. Among these, there is a theory of 
physical development, which finds very warm advocates, 
notwithstanding its novel principles and dangerous influ- 
ence. It teaches that " all forms in nature, living and 
dead, have been gradually developed from a primitive, 
crude, and imperfect state,"* — and consequently we may 
anticipate continued progress and improvement in all 
time to come. Beginning with that which is little bet- 
ter than nothing, it makes it instinct with perfection 
itself ) for this growth and progress, it is contended, are 
the result of an inherent law, and continually bring to 
light new forms of beauty, order and life, and show man 
himself but the improvement of a lower animal, and 
having his beginning in this mere crude element, the 
primary form of everything, animate and inanimate. 

Another theory which modern Science has boastingly 
set forth, is denominated the ethnological ; and teaches 
that the human race did not descend from one common 
parent ; but that there are several distinct races, inde- 
pendent of each other ; thus differing somewhat from the 
other theory, which makes man a simple development from 
a mere nothing, as is asserted of all matter around us. It 

* See Philadelphia Lectures, page 158. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 57 

is at once seen that these theories are opposed to the Mosaic 
account of the creation — banish God and his providence; 
and that the latter aims a blow at, and would, if it could, 
demolish, the whole system of Christianity. Only the 
descendants of Adam would be involved in original sin, 
and share in the atonement of Christ; and the Gospel 
could have no claim upon the other races, that enjoy a 
different .origin. But the Bible assumes that there is 
but one race, as stated on a former occasion ;* calls the first 
woman Eve, or Eva, because u she is the mother of all 
living f and says, by Paul's lips, that God " hath made 
of one blood all nations of men, for t# dwell on all the 
face of the earth therefore this theory lays the axe at 
the very root of the tree of divine knowledge — the one 
revelation we have had from heaven. I allude to these 
subjects, not for the sake of entering upon the work of 
refutation — this has been ably, learnedly and satisfacto- 
rily done : but to guard you against the unbelief that 
they involve ; for you will meet them in your general 
reading — the literature of the day, and among the intel- 
ligent members of society. Do we not know that what 
are called even the exact Sciences have changed their 
systems at different periods ? — that the learned in these 
same subjects do not themselves agree ? — that philosophy, 
geology, astronomy, and almost every other system that 
is waiting upon human investigation and research ; have 
undergone changes, and sometimes been characterized by 
contradictory statements ? And when the Bible has 
been battling, and gaining victories for near two thou- 
sand years ; when she has valued trophies of her con- 
quests ; and her history is filled with glorious achievements 
and brilliant successes, in her struggles with the most 



* See Sermon I, page 13. 



58 



SERMON III. 



powerful enemies that could be arrayed against her : is 
she now to lay down her weapons, sacrifice all the gains 
of the past, and confess herself a cheat and a falsehood; 
because modern Science has made itself a Goliath, and 
comes forth, and defies the armies of the living God ? In 
all such times of threatening peril hitherto, and it will 
be so now; she has always had a youthful David, who 
could find a few smooth stones from the brook ; and 
strength and skill to use them in the discomfiture of his 
enemy. 

The next form of unbelief we find manifesting itself in 
the very heart of religious bodies themselves, and is 
called ecclesiastical or spir itual development. It teaches 
that the whole of God's truth has not been given to 
man ■ but that in all ages, from the Apostles down, there 
would be new revelations ; and thus there would seem to 
be some plausibility in the reasoning of worldly men — 
that, if everything else is improving and advancing, 
religion should follow in the same channel, and be made 
to conform to circumstances, times, places, and persons. 
The only difficulty WLth worldly men is, that they do not 
find that religion always developes at the right time, or 
in the right direction; and they have to content them- 
selves with contending simply for the principle. In 
the face of this, however, the Scriptures inculcate; 
and the Church has ever held in her best days, the 
immutability and completeness of the faith. St. Paul 
says, that " there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism."* 
St. Jude exhorts us to " contend earnestly for the faith 
once delivered to the saints."f Again, St. Paul says to 
Timothy, "Keep that which is committed to thy trust." J 
"Take heed unto thyself, and the doctrine; continue in 



*Eph, iv: 5. 



f Jude 3. 



tl Tim. vi: 20. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 59 

them "charge some that they teach no other doctrine." 
And, finally, he seems to banish the whole principle, 
once and forever, when he says to the Galatians, " though 
we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel 
unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, 
let him be accursed. But it is a singular and melan- 
choly fact in the history of religionists, that Romanism 
and ultra Protestantism stand on common ground in 
advocating this theory, and thus verify the adage "that 
extremes will meet." Rome has been adding to her 
formulary of faith for hundreds of years ; since the peculi- 
arities which now distinguish her, were never heard of in 
the primitive Church of the first three centuries. It was 
thought that she had completed her system at the Coun- 
cil of Trent, during the pontificate of Pius XV., about tne 
middle of the sixteenth century; but, since that time, 
individual prelates, in their desire to exalt the mother of 
our Lord, and promote her worship; have taught her 
immaculate conception, or freedom from original sin; 
and, during the last month, it is well known that Bishops 
were summoned from all parts of the world, to meet the 
Pope in solemn assembly, to consider and set forth this 
new article of the faith — this last development of 
truth, as held by that Church. J 

#1 Tim. iv: 16. f Gal. i: 8, 9. 

J And by the last steamer we have the following significant 
announcement : 

"Vienna, December 10th, 1854. 
"The Pope, officiating at St. Peter's, promulgated at eleven 
o'clock, after the Gospel, the expected decree. The immaculate 
conception is declared to be the faith of the Church, and who- 
soever denies it is an heretic. Never were seen such crowds, 
Rome is intoxicated with joy." 



60 



SERMON III. 



What a demand it is upon our credulity, to believe that 
the same, or similar principle, which authorizes such ad- 
ditions to the Christian faith, should ever be advocated by 
any Protestant. And yet, when the pilgrims of New Eng- 
land were about to embark on board the Mayflower, at 
Leyden, in Holland, their pastor, the Rev. John Robin- 
son, used the following language in his farewell discourse : 
"If God reveal anything to you, by any other instrument, 
be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any 
truth by my ministry; for I am verily persuaded, I am very 
confident, that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth 
out of his holy word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently 
bewail the condition of the Reformed Churches, who are 
come to a period in religion, and will go, at present, no 
further than the instruments of their reformation. The 
Lutherans cannot be drawn to go beyond what Luther 
saw ; whatever part of his will our good God has revealed 
to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. And the 
Calvinists, you see, stick where they were left by that 
great man of God, who yet saw not all things. This is 
a misery much to be lamented; for, though they were 
burning and shining lights in their times, yet they pene- 
trated not into the whole counsel of God: but, were 
they now living, would be as willing to embrace further 
light, as that which they first received. I beseech you, 
remember, it is an article of your Church covenant, that 
you will be ready to receive whatever truth shall be 
made known to you from the written word of God. But 
I must herewith exhort you to take heed what you receive 
as truth. Examine it, consider it, and compare it with 
other Scriptures of truth, before you receive it. For it 
is not possible that the Christian world should come so 
a lately out of such thick anti-Christian darkness, and that 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 61 

perfection of knowledge should break forth at once."* 
Luther, Calvin, and most of the leading Protestants out 
of the Church of England, entertained very much the 
same views. The celebrated Whitfield said, in his day : 
"My doctrines I had from Christ and his Apostles. I 
was taught them of God. The Holy Spirit, from time 
to time, has led me into the knowledge of divine things; 
and I have been directed, by watching and reading the 
Scriptures on my knees, even in the minutest circum- 
stances, as plainly as the Jews were, when consulting 
the Urim and Thummin at the High Priest's breast. 
Dr. Scott, the well known commentator, uses similar 
language; and we find everywhere, the most unde- 
niable testimony that these were the sentiments gen- 
erally entertained. And what but unbelief, can be 
the result ? Who can deny that there is a wide-spread 
infidelity among the Romish priesthood, especially in 
those countries where that religion is dominant; and 
among the people generally, an influence, that is fast pro- 
ducing the same sad end ? With a boasted claim to in- 
fallibility and uniformity, changes and additions have 
ever marked the history of that Church: and at no 
time are her children protected in the possession of the 
faith of the Gospel. If, on the other hand, we look 
at those countries where the denominations have had 
sway, and this principle of development has been 
recognized and received, what a melancholy state of 
things arrests our attention, and causes our very heart 
to sink within us. Go to the native land of the Puri- 
tans, England, and we are informed that of " two hundred 
and sixty parishes established in their glory, in the days 



* Philadelphia Lectures, page 199. 

6 



f Ibid,' page 203. 



62 



SERMON III. 



of Cromwell, two hundred and forty were Unitarian as 
far back as 1848."* In Ireland, we are informed, the 
number of families of Presbyterians has diminished 
7,615 since 1847, nearly 1,300 per annum. In Protest- 
ant France, a traveler was informed, several years ago; 
that, of six hundred clergy, there could not ten be found; 
who dared to affirm that Jesus Christ was " God mani- 
fested in the flesh." In Switzerland, and at Geneva, he 
says: "I saw a proud sepulchral monument to Rosseau, 
but to forgotten Calvin, / they raised not a stone, they 
carved not a line/ and no one can tell where his body 
reposes. The ashes of Servetus, to whose fiery death 
Calvin gave his voice, have been scattered over lake 
and hill, and have broken forth in blains and boils upon 
the whole body; while the opinions for which Servetus 
perished, are preached with trumpet tongue in the very 
Cathedral, from which Calvin hurled his anathemas 
against him."* In Germany, the land of Luther, another 
traveler could not find a single individual who believed 
in the eternity of future punishment, and the disappear- 
ance of almost every other fundamental article of the 
Christian faith, was nearly as general. If we come back 
to our own country and our own New England ; where 
this principle had full sway, we find the results even 
more saddening. We have heard from their most dis- 
tinguished ministers this language: "Original sin is an 
original absurdity." "We are as much indebted to God 
for sin as for holiness." Spiritual Christianity is to be 
henceforth the standard; "perish forms and creeds;" 
and hence, in New Hampshire, last year seventy, and 
this year ninety, Congregational societies report no infant 

# Presbyterian Clergyman Looting for the Church, pp. 148, 151. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 63 

baptisms. " The Church must be re-built upon broader 
bases of faith. Its discipline must be altered, and other 
tests of communion, adapted to the times and societies, 
around us, be instituted."* Witness, too, not only the 
falling away from the Christian faith, Tender the plea of 
its development; but the divisions, controversies and ani- 
mosities that have been the result, which are the sure 
forerunners of doubt and unbelief. Thes^ things hold 
the relation of cause and effect, as certainly as do the 
fruit and the blossom, the harvest and the seed. Our only 
safety lies in the strenuous maintenance of the Apostolic 
principle, that the faith was once delivered, and that it is 
to be earnestly contended for; while we reject, as a loath- 
some error, that Christianity is to be modernized, and 
made progressive, by additions or improvements. 

Another form under which unbelief is manifesting 
itself in our land, is Socialism. Men love association and 
society; and the Father of us all designed to meet this 
longing of our nature, as well as accomplish other pur- 
poses; by the institution of His Church, as a great 
brotherhood, and mean of fellowship for the human race. 
But our day witnesses other organizations, whose tend- 
ency is to dispense with the Church, and thus make 
man's work supersede that of his Creator. I take two 
instances, not because I would make them prominent; 
but because I would use them as examples : Odd-Fellow- 
ship, and Sons of Temperance. We have here two 
Christian graces, love and temperance, as the ends to be 
attained, by gathering men together. By the contribu- 
tion of an annual sum, a fund is obtained to provide for 
the sick, the widow and the orphan, and secure a suitable 

^See "Presbyterian Clergyman Looking for the Church," p. 167. 



64 



SERMON III. 



interment for the dead. It renders its service just at 
the time it is most acceptable — when the heart is sus- 
ceptible to kindness, a favor is precious, and a friend is 
needed. And if the recipient of this kindness has 
been recovered from intemperance, he perhaps feels the 
blessings of sobriety making their appeal; and being 
ignorant of the privileges of Christian fellowship, he 
exclaims, in the fullness of his joy and gratitude, " this is 
my Church. It has visited and cared for me in my 
sickness, fed and clothed me in my suffering, pledged its 
guardianship for my wife and children when I die; and 
provided a respectable interment for my dust, in suitable 
rites, and the attendance of its officers and members." 
But have you not been paying for all these things ? 
Does not your fellow member stand over your bedside, 
and minister to your wants, because you are pledged to 
do the same for him ? Is not every thing done as a 
mutual service ? Your association is upon the principle 
of insurance: your kindness is rendered, expecting a 
return again. And yet this is your Church. Your 
orators call your motto,* " friendship, love and truth;" 
u the trinity of humanity." And is not this a form of 
blasphemy? They say that " light did not dawn upon 
the world till your institution arose"- — "that it ushered in 
the day of man's redemption." And you appoint one of 
your number— it may be, an unbeliever, a profane man — 
to be the minister in your church, and solemnize the burial 
of your dead, with prayer and affecting ceremonies. And 
do you inculcate these Christian graces, temperance and 
holy love, as the Bible teaches them ? — as a duty — by the 

*See Oration at the Dedication of the Odd-Fellows' Hall, 
New York City. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 65 

love of Christ, and the threatening of the penalty of 
eternal death ? Do you picture the glories and happiness 
of heaven, and the sufferings of the lost ? You answer, 
No. You use only earthly motives — you appeal to self- 
respect, love of a good name, regard for his temporal 
welfare, and love for his family — all well in their place, 
but far inferior to those holy considerations, and purer 
motives, which emanate from the Gospel. You secure 
the pardon of no sin, satisfy no longings of the soul, 
impart no instruction, unfold none of the mysteries of the 
life that now is, awaken no sorrow in prospect of death, 
and reveal no eternal joy, as an inheritance beyond the 
grave. We cannot, therefore, regard your institution 
otherwise than as a form, under which is lurking oppos- 
ition to our holy faith; you take one of the jewels of its 
crown and lower its value; you teach it to do only half 
its work, and then send its owner and possessor to the 
grave, without light to illumine its darksome recesses ; 
and the soul to go into the pfesence of its God, un- 
cleansed of its guilt. When you thus attempt to contend 
with evil, and do good, with other than divine weapons 
and instruments ; when you exalt human agencies, and 
banish those that are heavenly; when you use the Gospel 
language without its spirit, and attempt to do its work 
without its sanction or support; you are abettors of un- 
belief, and inflict injury upon the one great work of 
human salvation, though you may relieve bodily suffering. 

The abuse of private judgment in religion is a very 
fruitful cause of unbelief. It is virtually said that every 
man is to go to the Bible, and construct his own church 
and religion. He is possessed of infallibility, and is 
taught to believe that the faith he draws therefrom, is as 
sound, as that professed by the early martyrs, though he 

6* 



66 



SERMON III. 



may deny fundamental truths. But such a principle is 

not adopted in the ordinary affairs of life. What are 
the decisions of our civil courts? Not, surely, the 
dictates of each judge's individual opinion; but based 
upon precedent, and according to that general inter- 
pretation of the law, which runs back to the first case 
that arose after its enactment. When a question arises 
under the federal constitution, it is determined according 
to the received construction of that great instrument; 
not as each successive Court determines, if their opinion 
should differ from that construction. The echo of the 
plaudits of the multitude who gathered around a dis- 
tinguished foreigner* from exile, a few years ago, has 
scarcely died away; and yet did he not, by his great 
skill and talent, endeavor to make the American people 
adopt his private judgment in the interpretation of 
General Washington's Farewell Address, in opposition 
to the natural and uniform construction of that docu- 
ment ? Did he not convey the idea that it was our duty 
to go to the continent of Europe; and intervene for the 
relief of the down-trodden and oppressed; and act as a 
mediator, wherever there were injustice and tyranny ? 
And did he not endeavor to find his reasons in that 
memorable paper, containing the parting counsels of the 
Father of his Country ? And what now is the public 
sentiment in relation to that effort — that forced construc- 
tion of an instrument, that is enshrined in the very hearts 
of this people ? They would not permit such a perversion 
— they could not be deceived with his sophistry — and 
now, who can be found as his abettor or defender ? Why, 
then, should such a dangerous principle be allowed in 



* Kossuth. 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 67 

religion ? Christianity is from God to be received, not 
created. It has a history, accessible, prolonged, and 
easily studied ; and the Church and her doctrines are to 
be accepted, and embraced, as they came from Christ and 
His Apostles. Open the door, and send in every man to 
choose for himself, and you multiply, diversify, and 
finally destroy. " During the four years of Cromwell's 
triumph in England, when this principle had full sway, 
more than one hundred sects arose, favoring the deadliest 
heresies." Milton was an advocate of the same idea, 
and * " whilst his fingers swept with such inimitable 
grace and grandeur, the strings of a seraphic lyre \ alas ! 
with a like facility, almost poetic, he swept over all these 
notes in the descending scale of theology. Leaving the 
Church of Rome, he became a Presbyterian, then an 
Independent, next Anabaptist, afterward an Arian, even- 
tually a Socinian, and finally, at the end returned to a 
better mind." This principle has been unchecked in 
our own land ; and what a scene religion presents here 
as its necessary consequence. Can there be a more 
efficient cause of unbelief; when we have, as the result of 
telling every man he can make his own religion, not 
only every form of religious error, but the most corrupting 
practices and soul-harrowing blasphemies ? Truth is 
God's gift, and cannot be changed by man; and Chris- 
tianity is the highest form of truth. It is not, then, the 
reason and wisdom of this day that can reveal it to us : 
but we must seek that which Christ and His Apostles 
taught and practiced, and which gave hope and conso- 
lation to their immediate followers. We must not be 
carried away with plausible representations — a faith that 

* " Presbyterian Clergyman Looking for the Church," p. 171, 



68 



SERMON III. 



suits our taste and gratifies our senses — but have the full 
conviction, that it has come from God, embodies His will, 
and can make us "wise unto salvation. " 

I can now barely allude to the last cause of unbelief 
that will occupy our attention at this time. I refer to 
the inconsistencies and fall of Christians themselves. 
We know how we are affected at the sight of a faithless 
parent, husband, or wife, or child — at a want of prin- 
ciple in an ordinary citizen — and feel disposed to distrust 
the reality of integrity in man, and doubt whether filial, 
parental, and conjugal love is indeed a genuine passion, 
lasting, and enduring. But how much more calculated are 
the daily and glaring departures from holiness, and the 
final apostacy and fall of the Christian; to awaken doubt, 
and lead men to deny the reality of God's grace and truth 
in inspiring piety, and godliness. The world is gazing, 
with more than common watchfulness, at the daily walk 
of those who take the name of Christ, and bow before 
the ineffable glory of His majesty. Does resolution 
tremble — does temptation catch the eye — do they follow, 
even with cautious steps, the pathway of the deceiver — 
that tvorld takes courage ; it feels that Christianity has 
not such vast influence — is perhaps no better than its 
own morality. But, does principle give way— does love 
fail, and passion overcome, till that Christian falls, the 
victim of sin and guilt — it swells with pride, it declares 
the defection as a triumph of its own cause; and unbelief 
proclaims a jubilee. 

Thus, I have endeavored to set forth, in all honesty 
and simplicity, the most important dangers to which 
morality and religion are exposed : and the question may 
arise, have we no hopes to cheer us ? To this inquiry, 
my next discourse shall be a reply. In the meantime, 



UNBELIEF, A NATIONAL DANGER. 69 

let us weigh well the solemn and important truths that 
have been presented ; and remember that many of our 
perils are not glaring, but concealed, and wear an unsus- 
picious garb, and even appear in forms of kindly friend- 
ship. Let our eyes ever be open, and our ears unstopped; 
and our voices ready to advocate the undying principles 
of divine truth. We are entrusted with a precious 
legacy : let us hand it down to a coming generation, 
complete, undiminished, unincumbered. 



SEEM OF IV. 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 

Isaiah lxv: 8. — "Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is 
found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not; for a 
blessing is in it : so wiU I do for my servants' sake, that I 
may not destroy them aU." 

To those who have been contemplating with us, in our 
last two monthly discourses, the dangers of the nation; 
there may seem but few hopes to cheer and animate, in 
the midst of so much that is calculated to depress and 
discourage. They who believe that morality and religion 
must underlie all true national greatness, prosperity and 
happiness, cannot fail to be aroused, and alarmed, when 
their foundations are being undermined, or even in any 
degree weakened. But a consciousness of danger does 
not necessarily involve irresolution and inaction — a supine 
yielding its powerful influence, and a giving up of all 
as lost and beyond remedy, without an effort or a strug- 
gle. The very conviction of great peril will prompt an 
inquiry, and a looking out, for ail means of escape, and 
hopes of deliverance. Having, therefore, on two former 
occasions, endeavored to point out the formidable and 
varied instrumentalities that threaten the existence and 
perpetuity of morality and religion in our much loved and 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



71 



cherished land; it now becomes our duty to present such 
features and characteristics as are calculated to excite joy- 
ful expectation, cheerful confidence, and animating hope. 
This will not be done by any effort to diminish the magni- 
tude or number of our perils, or overshadow and conceal 
their repulsive aspect, for they should always be kept 
conspicuous before all eyes ; but by revealing elements of 
life, germs of goodness, and the actual workings of the 
holy and true, in the national heart; that thus we may 
learn and appreciate our real grounds of hope. The 
husbandman does not consign to destruction the contents 
of his granary, because he finds only the hardened and 
unchanged kernel ; but scatters in hope, because he knows 
there is a principle of life within. He does not permit 
his valued fields always to lie waste, because they lose 
their verdure in autumn, and produce no harvest in win- 
ter ; but at the appointed season puts his hands to the 
.plow, and sows his seed in fullest confidence, because he 
knows they have fertility, and will, in due time, yield 
their increase. So, of the individual and the nation, it may 
be predicated, that though now repulsive and lying waste 
— though barren and unfruitful, yet if they possess an 
element of life and virtue — if susceptible of cultivation — 
if there be the seed of truth and holiness, there is ground 
for hope of change and growth ; and instead of sinking 
into degradation and degeneracy, they should see reason 
for imploring divine protection, and improving every gift 
with which they have been entrusted. Their very 
possession of an element of life and goodness becomes an 
assurance of greater blessings; and God will spare the 
whole, for the sake of the faithfulness of a part. He 
will be patient and forbearing toward all, when even a 



72 



SERMON IV. 



few are found to honor His lioly name, and obey His 
inspired word, "for thus saith the Lord/' &c. 

We have set before us a vine dresser, contemplating a 
blasted and withered vine, which seems no longer worthy 
of his care, and a burden upon his hands. A single clus- 
ter still clings to the almost lifeless branch; all else is 
unproductive; and why should it be longer spared to 
occupy needed space, and mar the beauty of the vineyard? 
But when about to cut it down, and root it from the 
ground, a kindly voice of a considerate one interposes, 
saying, "Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it." That 
one living cluster contains sweetness and strength — tells 
you there is life in the root, and if spared, may yet send 
forth an abundance of healthful branches, and load them 
with luxuriant clusters of the choicest fruit. As the 
dresser spares his vine for the sake of the solitary cluster, 
and the blessing it contains, so saith the Lord, "will I 
do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them^ 
all." The prophet presents very much the same idea in 
another place, where he says, "as a teil-tree, and as an 
oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their 
leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof."' * 
Though a tree may be deprived of its foliage, and seem 
only a lifeless and useless trunk, yet there is life beneath, 
which soon will clothe it in richness, verdure and beauty. 
So, likewise, if the people of the land fall from virtue and 
holiness, or be summoned away by death, like the scat- 
tering of the leaves of the monarch of the forest, yet there 
is a seed left, whence shall come a multitude to fill their 
places. The same power which made them what they 



-Isaiah 6: 13. 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 73 

were, remains to mould anew the generation following. 
In contemplating our nation hitherto, in connection with 
its dangers, we may say we have looked at the unsightly 
oak, with its leafless boughs ; and the repulsive vine, with 
its withered branches. It will now be our duty to find 
upon our national vine, that single cluster, with a blessing 
in it, for whose sake it shall be spared and saved to bring 
more abundant fruit; and to determine whether our 
national oak is that vigorous and healthful tree, " whose 
substance is in itself;" that, though it drop its leaves 
from year to year, according to a law of its being, does 
go on and expand so regularly that it must ultimately fill, 
and overshadow the land ? It is hardly necessary to say 
that that tree, thus to be the means of our hope, that dus- 
ter that contains a blessing for our preservation and safety, 
is the religion of Jesus Christ. Our hopes for the future 
are in proportion to the evidences of its influence and 
power over the people of the land. We may boast of our 
widely extended territory and vast population; but these 
alone make a government unwieldy, and its administra- 
tion difficult. We may rejoice in the midst of our wealth ; 
but this, unchecked, generates pride, luxury and extrava- 
gance. There must be public integrity, virtue and holi- 
ness, the growth of Christianity, that are the very helm 
and compass, by which alone our ponderous, majestic and 
glorious ship of state can be piloted to a secure anchor- 
age, and moored in enduring peace, prosperity and safety. 
Wherever, then, we can find traces of Christ's religion, 
there we have reasons for encouragement and confidence, 
in contemplating the broad future of the Republic. 

The very fact that there is a growing consciousness of 
our dangers, and that increasing efforts are making to 
avert them, exhibits the influence of the religious ele- 



74 



SERMON IV. 



merit in the public mind. It gives the vision by which 
these perils are discovered. It furnishes the light by 
which they are exposed. It presents us tlje true standard, 
and shows the necessity of an enlightened and high-toned 
patriotism, submission to authority, that there should be 
no sympathy with crime to influence its needed punish- 
ment — no divorce of religion from education — no encour- 
agement of intemperance, luxury and extravagance, and 
warns us against cherishing " an evil heart of unbelief 
in departing from the living God." There is, among 
large numbers, a growing and deep-felt consciousness of 
these dangers. They see under what varied and deceit- 
ful forms, infidelity is gaining influence and strength. 
There is a general voice of indignant remonstrance, 
against the shameless and bare-faced follies of luxury and 
extravagance. A most formidable opposition has been 
raised against the overflowings of the monster vice of 
intemperance. Thoughtful and far-sighted men are dis- 
covering the sad consequences of banishing the Bible, and 
its religion from the public schools ) and even they, who 
are high in authority, are not afraid to assert and enforce 
this important union, and show how essential it is to our 
general welfare and perpetuity. In the very first State 
paper of the present Chief Executive of your own Com- 
monwealth, he very emphatically says: " Virtue, intelli- 
gence, and truth, are the foundation of our Republic. By 
these our institutions can and will be preserved. Igno- 
rance is not the mother of patriotism, or of Republics. 
It is the enemy and destroyer of both. Education in its 
enlightening, elevating and forming influences; in the 
full power of its beneficent results, should be encouraged 
by the State. Not that mere intellectual culture, that 
leaves the mind a moral waste, unfit to understand the 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



75 



duties of the man or citizen ; but that higher education, 
founded upon, directed and controlled by sound and ele- 
vated moral principle, that recognizes the Bible as the 
foundation of true knowledge; as the text-book alike of 
the child, and the American statesman ; and as the great 
charter and bulwark of civil and religious freedom. The 
knowledge thus acquired is the power conservative of 
States and nations; more potent in its energy to uphold 
the institutions of freedom and the rights of man, than 
armies and navies in their proudest strength." * And 
so, too, there is an increasing realization of the magnitude 
and influence of each of the great perils above alluded to ; 
and as they are the things to which all men have a natu- 
ral proclivity, and in which they take delight; there must 
be a wisdom and light, extraneous to themselves, that 
have revealed the true character of these evils, and 
awakened a dread of their consequences. The simple 
circumstance then that men are aware of their dangers — 
that they can see that their best interests and highest 
welfare are in jeopardy, shows that they have taken 
another measure of responsibility than their own, by 
which they judge of human conduct; and that they are 
looking at things by that heavenly light, which is always 
a ground of trust, whenever it is recognized and followed, 
in the varied relations of life. 

Another source of hope is the fact that Christianity is 
a part of the common law of the land. Let no one be 
startled by this announcement, and construe it into a 
declaration of a union of the civil and religious; that 
the state is bound to a particular religious society or 
denomination; -a declaration which cannot be more 



*Gov. Pollock' s^Inaugural. 



76 



SERMON IV. 



distasteful to any one, than your present speaker. Men 
are so sensitive upon this subject, and have been accus- 
tomed to hear so much of the evils of the establishment 
in the mother country; that they seem to take especial 
pleasure in the assertion, that religion is in no way 
connected with the State ; and that the government is in 
no degree associated with its institutions, committed to 
its principles, nor bound to afford it protection. They 
contend, that this is one of the most attractive features 
of the nation, that there is this boundless latitude and 
liberty, and that there is nothing to prevent the introduc- 
tion of idolatry, or even the creed of Mohammed. I, on 
the contrary, assert that this is a Christian nation, and 
it cheers me, and fills me with joyous hope, to know that 
Christianity is a part of the common law of the land. 
This is a matter that has been thoroughly discussed 
in our different States, and repeatedly affirmed by their 
tribunals; so that an assertion to the contrary can 
proceed only from ignorance, or willful rejection of 
fact. It was inherited from England, where one of her 
most distinguished jurists, Lord Mansfield, declared in 
one of his decisions; "the eternal principles of natural 
religion are part of the common law ; the essential 
principles of revealed religion are part of the common 
law ; so that any person reviling, subverting, or ridicu- 
ling them may be prosecuted at common law."* As far 
back as 1811, a most important and exciting case occur- 
red in New York, wherein the defendant was indicted 
for blasphemy against God, and shameless reproaches, 
and profane ridicule of Christ and the Holy scriptures ; 
tried, found guilty, heavily fined, and sentenced to 



* See Curtis' address at Trinity College, page 18. 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



imprisonment. The case was most learnedly, and thor- 
oughly argued ; and after a faithful and attentive consid- 
eration of it, in all its bearings, Chancellor Kent, the 
judge, who may be called the Blackstone of America, 
affirmed the principle in an able and lengthy opinion, in 
which he says: " There is nothing in our manners, or 
•institutions, which has prevented the application, or the 
necessity of this part of the common law. We stand 
equally in need, now as formerly, of all that moral 
discipline, and of those principles of virtue, which help 
to bind society together. The people of this State, in 
common with the people of this country, profess the 
general doctrines of Christianity, as the rule of their 
faith and practice; and to scandalize the Author of these 
doctrines is not only, in a religious point of view, 
extremely impious, but even in respect to the obligations 
due to society, is a gross violation of decency and good 
order. " "No government among any of the polished 
nations of antiquity, and none of the institutions of 
modern Europe, (a single and monitory case excepted,) 
ever hazarded such a bold experiment, upon the solidity 
of the public morals, as to permit with impunity, and 
under the sanction of their tribunals, the general religion 
of the community to be openly insulted and defamed. 
The very idea of jurisprudence with the ancient law- 
givers and philosophers, embraced the religion of the 
country."* A similar, but not so aggravated a case, was 
tried in our own State, and in this city, in 1824, in which 
every effort was made by the defendant's counsel to 
shield his client from punishment, by showing that he 
had not committed an indictable offence. But so well 



v 

* Johnson's Reports, vol. 8, pages 294, 295. 

7* 



78 



SERMON IV. 



established was the principle regarded, that no argument 
was made on the part of the commonwealth ; and the 
judge, with an array of reasoning and testimony that must 
have seemed irresistible, with precedent after precedent, 
and fact after fact, does not hesitate to declare in his 
learned and lengthy opinion, that " Christianity is, and 
always has been, a part of the common law of Pennsyl- 
vania." "It is not proclaimed by the commanding 
voice of any human superior, but expressed in the calm 
and mild accents of customary law. Its foundations are 
broad, and strong, and deep; they are laid in the 
authority, the interest, the affections of the people. 
Waiving all questions of hereafter, it is the purest 
system of morality, the firmest auxiliary, and only stable 
support of all human laws."* Can we ask stronger 
evidence of the truth of the principle under considera- 
tion • which, while it discards all church organizations, 
allows variety of opinions, and even discussions of all 
religious tenets; does so connect Christianity with the 
common law, that it may enjoy its protection, and secure 
punishment for those who cast reproach upon our Lord 
and Saviour, profanely scoff at the Holy Scriptures, and 
deny the being and providence of Grod. So well estab- 
lished has this principle become, that no Court <3an 
probably be found that would deny it. When, a few 
years since, the civil authority of a Southern State was 
remonstrated with by a Jew, because in a proclamation, 
recommending a day of general thanksgiving and prayer, 
Christianity and its divine author were spoken of, thus 
giving offence to a portion of the citizens of the State;" 
the Executive took the broad and true ground, that we 



* Sergeant and Rawle's Reports, vol. 11, pages 400, 406, 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



79 



are a Christian people; that he was administering a 
government that recognized Christianity, and no other 
religion ; though it might, and did tolerate the Jewish 
faith; and therefore there could be no just and reasona- 
ble objection to his allusion to the Saviour of Christians, 
and His gospel. When therefore we can feel that our 
holy religion has become engrafted upon, and incorpora- 
ted with, so permanent and unchanging an element of 
the national life, as the common law; that the Judiciary 
of the land is, by virtue of its high functions, pledged to 
its guardianship and protection ; unless it discard the 
authority of the past, and shut its eyes upon the teaching 
and example of unvarying history, for successive centu- 
ries ; have we not reason to cherish hope, and find ground 
for cheerful encouragement ? 

But more than this, Christianity is in part associ- 
ated with the statute law of the land ; and in this we 
have another foundation and source of confidence. Some 
of its more important institutions, and principles, are not 
only taken under its protection ; but enjoined upon every 
citizen by its high sanctions, and whose neglect is pun- 
ished with its pains and penalties : and yet no one can 
say, the civil authority enforces a nationa^religion, or in 
any way abridges the legitimate exercise of liberty of 
conscience in matters of faith. Foremost upon the 
statute-book stand the recognition and endorsement of 
the Christian's day of rest, commonly called the Lord's 
day. Although there is a considerable number of the 
Jewish nation in our midst, who still keep the Sabbath 
of their church; although there is a denomination of 
Christians called the Seventh-Day Baptists, because they 
observe the seventh, instead of the first day of the week ; 
although the respectable society of Friends desire to 



80 



SERMON IV. 



regard every day alike, and attach no especial sanctity to 
the Lord's day : yet there is one uniform law on this sub- 
ject, and the observance of this one day is enjoined upon 
all classes of men, and the advocates of every form of 
belief. When testimony is to be taken in your courts of 
justice, that same law declares, that it is not sufficient that 
the witness is, in a worldly sense, moral, and enjoys the 
confidence of the community; but he must believe in 
the Supreme Being, and in rewards and punishments. He 
must, moreover, take an oath, unless he has conscientious 
scruples ; and that oath is made, by doing reverence to the 
word of God, and imploring His help ) and thus the law 
endeavors to secure the due administration of Justice, by 
calling to its aid, the truths and sanctions which Christi- 
anity can furnish. Whence, too, springs that standard 
of right and justice, by which every tribunal is to be 
guided, and which the statute imposes ? Not surely from 
human wisdom and invention ; not from man's naturally 
exalted and clear conceptions of the true, the honorable 
and the equitable : but from divine wisdom, as delivered 
of old by tradition, or in the inspired word. If we trace 
the history of every nation of the earth — nations in their 
glory and their downfall~we find that growth, prosperity, 
and happiness, have been most generally found, where the 
divine standard has been most highly exalted. The 
golden days in the history of jurisprudence have wit- 
nessed the supremacy of the mild and just precepts of the 
religion of Jesus Christ. Because, approximating to 
this standard, the systems of Lycurgus and Solon were 
more beneficial, and continued longer, than any political 
institution of antiquity. The system of Roman Juris- 
prudence inscribed upon the Twelve Tables of the Decem- 
viri, for the same reason, continued a blessing for seven 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



81 



centuries to Rome; and it has been truly said that "the 
tables of brass existed stronger than her invincible 
legions. The storms of popular dissension broke harm- 
less upon them. The flames of the Gauls but freed them 
from the corrosion of time, that they might the more 
conspicuously proclaim justice; and though but rthe 
promptings of the religion of nature, and of the study 
and research of the civilian, they, like the stone tables of 
Sinai, existed as the sacred guardians of the people." 
Again, in the sixth century, after the foundations of the 
empire were decaying, and ignorance and corruption 
were spreading their gloomy pall over the land, why did 
"the Institutes, the Pandects, and the Code of the 
renowned Justinian" prove such a blessing, and restore 
justice to its ancient channels ? We are told, because 
"in these writings the mild and regenerating influences 
of Christian love and charity are most happily displayed, 
in contrast with the unyielding severity and selfish policy 
of the old Eoman Law, which made the name of a stran- 
ger synonymous with that of a foe, and even at the 
domestic altar, recognized the relation of parent and child, 
as that of master and slave. The change was like that 
of the cross, the instrument of Roman cruelty, becoming 
the expressive symbol of hope and mercy. "* If we pass 
to our mother country, and contemplate the labors of a 
G-lanville, Bracton, Fortescue, Littleton, Dyer, Coke, 
Holt and Mansfield, we discover a still closer approxima- 
tion to that one perfect standard which the Gospel pre- 
sents. This seems to be, as it should be, the model; and 
we may well regard this fact as - a cheering omen, an 
auspicious circumstance : for what agency in the body 



* See Curtis' Address, pp. 6, 7. 



82 



SERMON IV. 



politic; what combination of men in the whole land, save 
the Christian ministry, can be so efficient for good — so 
promote true morality and religion — so spread self respect, 
and exalt the condition of all classes, as an enlightened, 
discriminating Judiciary; uniformly, fearlessly, and im- 
partially, administering the laws, according to that standard 
of right and justice, which the Gospel, and the Gospel 
only, holds up for the guidance of men. Of such justice 
it may be said, u truth is its hand-maid, freedom its 
child, peace is its companion ; safety walks in its steps, 
victory follows in its train : it is the highest emanation of 
the Gospel ; it is the greatest attribute of God ; it is that 
centre round which human motives and passions turn : 
and justice, sitting on high, sees genius and power, and 
wealth and birth, revolving round her throne ; and teaches 
their paths, and marks out their orbits, and warns all with 
a loud voice, and rules with a strong arm, and carries order 
and discipline, into a world, which, but for her, would be 
a wild waste of passions." * 

But the law of the land has adopted and enjoined still 
more of the good things of Christianity, and thus become 
its advocate and friend. In taking under its care, and 
framing regulations for social life and civil society; where 
did it find the standard of its requirements ? It has pre- 
scribed rules for the organization, and preservation of 
society, and established limits and restrictions. Was it 
accidental, that these very rules, limits and restrictions 
are found in God's word? Was it accidental, or a singu- 
lar coincidence, that almost, if not, every command of 
the decalogue, is enjoined, in some form, by the civil 
law ? Does it not prohibit some of the very olfences, and 



* See Rev. Sidney Smith's Works, page 298. 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



83 



immoralities, that the Gospel condemns ? and are not all 
its enumerated vices, transgressions against the divine 
law ? Whether Christianity furnished its standard of 
requirements, or not; whether it was designed to adopt 
and incorporate a part of Christianity or not ; the fact 
cannot be denied that the civil law does, in many things, 
conform to the Gospel — has adopted a portion of its pure 
system of morality ; and does punish, with due severity, 
and promptness, many heinous offences against the law 
of God. When we thus find a striking concord and 
agreement — the system of the law; but a reflection of that 
of the Gospel — that as the voice of God said from 
Sinai, "thou shalt do no murder, nor steal, nor commit 
adultery, nor bear false witness," so from the legislative 
hall, and the Senate house, the voice of the civil law 
proclaims the same commands ; and that it has adopted a 
variety of regulations to preserve the various classes of 
society uncontaminated : whenever, moreover, we find the 
benevolence', mercy, and humanity, of the Gospel, glo- 
riously, and attractively revealed, in the institutions of 
the land, erected under the auspices and by the order of 
the civil government — as her alms-houses, her asylums, 
her hospitals — when that government protects the weak, 
relieves the oppressed, and ministers justice to all : is 
she not furnishing hope and encouragement, that God, and 
His religion, will be honored and extended; and become 
an efficient instrument for the production of that 
" righteousness which exalteth a nation ?" We may well 
rejoice, that there are no religious persecutions, and that 
the blessings of toleration are enjoyed in this privileged 
land ; but we have as great reason to rejoice, that the law 
is the friend, and advocate of general Christianity ; and 
that it makes common cause with the Gospel, in the 



84 



SERMON IV. 



maintenance, and enforcement of those principles of 
morality, benevolence, mercy and humanity; which are 
indispensably necessary, to the purity and exaltation of a 
nation's character, the uniformity of her prosperity, and 
happiness, and the perpetuity of her healthful, useful 
existence. 

Another source of hope is found in that just moral senti- 
ment, and high appreciation of integrity, which are found 
so influential in most parts of our land. It is not seen 
alone among professing Christians; it is not that vox 
populi, which some would regard as vox Dei 5 but it is 
a widely extended public opinion, upon morality and 
religion, which exercises a happy and restraining influ- 
ence over large masses of our population. It is quiet, 
unostentatious; not boastful, nor presuming; and yet 
real, living and influential. Men seem to know that 
it is in the street, the market, the assembly, every 
place of trade and industry, by the fireside and in the 
court of justice; and yet you cannot locate it — no class 
monopolizes it, and it is difficult to define precisely what it 
is, and give its true dimensions and proportions. And 
yet when the occasion demands it, it exercises its 
authority, and issues its commands, and multitudes yield 
submissive obedience. Sometimes its dominion is so 
noiseless, and its influence so general, that we wonder 
where the potent agent is enthroned, that can exercise 
such a powerful sway, without an array of subalterns, to 
enforce compliance, and punish the refractory. For 
example, when in 1848 the chief magistrate of the 
nation was to be inaugurated, and thousands who had 
been delighted with his military exploits, were waiting 
the interesting occasion in anxious expectation; the 4th 
of March occurred on Sunday. No counsel of the 



HOPES Of T HI REP I B LLC. 



85 



people was gathered to deliberate upon the propriety of 
a postponement. It is not known, that a single voice was 
raised in favor of the desecration of the day. There 
was this public sentiment, this high appreciation of the 
holy and the good, that silently, and without opposition, 
postponed this great national solemnity to the following 
'day; when the hero and patriot took the oath of office, 
and received the congratulations of a confiding people. 
While to show the absence of this sentiment in another 
nation, when the first President of the then French 
Republic, now the Emperor Napoleon, was to be chosen 
in the same year, the election was fixed for, and actually 
occurred on the Lord's day. At other times, this same 
sentiment will emerge from its hiding place, assume a 
kind of ubiquity of existence, by appearing in all places 
at the same time; and gifted with ten thousand tongues, 
will so afford vent to its displeasure and indignation^ 
that the very heavens will seem to echo back its with- 
ering rebukes, and merited denunciations. For example, 
when recently, in a well known murder trial, in a neighbor- 
ing state,* where wealth, talent, influence, and distinc- 
tion, were successfully employed to protect the guilty, a 
verdict of acquittal was announced — we can all remem- 
ber how this same sentiment spoke out from almost 
every public press— at the corners of the streets, in 
every place of concourse, while it probably kept back in 
the individual heart more than it expressed; and placed 
an indelible mark upon that unfortunate victim of his 
own passions, which he must carry to his grave. When 
justice had been perverted, the occasion seemed to 
demand the interposition and expression of its judgment; 



* Ward' 8 trial in Kentucky, 

8 



86 SERMON IV. 

not to interfere with, and reverse the sentence of the 
court ; but for the infliction of a penalty even greater 
than that of the law — for how many deaths must not be 
endured by living in public disgrace, and self-inflicted 
banishment from the companionship, and sympathy, of 
your fellow man. So, too, a favored individual may be 
riding upon the full tide of popularity — friends may 
throng his path, and elevation after elevation may be the 
gift of his warm admirers. Friendship, confidence, and 
profound respect, may fill all hearts, so that his will shall 
be their law : and then let him, in an evil hour, commit 
some flagrant act — poison his neighbor's domestic peace, 
forge his name, or prove in some other way base at heart— 
and what a change in an hour I Respect, confidence, 
and friendship, are withdrawn, as if preconcerted — admir- 
ers disperse as if by agreement — and popularity dissolves 
into thin air, as if by a law of its nature. All is the 
result of the silent but certain influence of this high 
public appreciation of rectitude — this elevated moral 
sentiment, that will not be trifled with, wronged and 
trampled upon ; that consigns to merited dishonor, and 
oblivion, all those who offend against the purity of social 
life, or prove devoid of that integrity which both the civil 
and divine law rigidly enjoin. Why do the sensual, dis- 
sipated, and inebriate, practice their indulgences behind 
darkened windows, and screened entrances ? Why do 
gaming, licentiousness, and other forms of vice, retire to 
the upper room, the unfrequented street, and the narrow 
alley? Why should they close their haunts and homes, 
more than the merchant does his salesroom, or the me- 
chanic his workshop ? Because of this same ever-mov- 
ing, ever-present, Argus-eyed public sentiment; whose 
piercing gaze they are ashamed to encounter, whose 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



87 



severest rebuke, and heaviest condemnation, they know 
they deserve. Here, then, we have a check upon evil, 
an element of good, a source of encouragement, and a 
reason for confidence. 

But our highest and surest hopes spring from the 
actual existence, and pervading influence of Christianity 
itself, throughout all parts of the land. It may be mixed 
with many errors- — many religious bodies may have 
departed from the pure faith, and rejected many of the 
profitable institutions of the early church of our Lord 
and His apostles ; but the sanctifying, restraining and 
elevating influence of the principles of the Gospel, is felt 
among all classes of our people. Four years ago, it was 
reported,* and probably these figures fall short of the 
actual truth, that there were, in the states and territories, 
nearly thirty-nine thousand church edifices, capable of 
accommodating nearly fifteen millions of persons; con- 
siderably more than one-half of our whole population — 
the value of church property was then about ninety 
millions of dollars ; and the number of clergymen was 
about thirty thousand; receiving for their maintenance, 
some six millions of dollars. When we remember that 
the support of religion is not compelled- — that these 
churches and other church property — that these salaries 
of clergymen, and other contributions for missions, and 
general charities, are not the compelled, but voluntary 
offerings of the people ; have we not the most incontro- 
vertible, and very gratifying evidence of a powerful, 
active, living religious element in our population ? When 
we add to this, the controlling, hallowing effect of this 
religion upon individual conduct — -that Christians again 

* Compendium of United States Census, 1850, page 132. 



88 



SERMON IV. 



in their respective positions and spheres, being "renewed 
in the spirit of their minds," and "adorning the doc- 
trine of God their Saviour in all things/' do exert a most 
restraining, sanctifying, and healthful power, over hun- 
dreds and thousands around ; can we attach too much 
importance to that Gospel, which has thus wrought such 
gratifying results, and is still doing a great and noble 
work in this land ? We sometimes hear the lamentation 
that religion costs so much — that so many millions are 
paid for church buildings, institutions, and the support of 
the clergy ) but what would be the state of things, if 
these were all banished, by a condemnatory law of the 
legislature? If, with six millions now paid to thirty 
thousand clergymen, you contribute twelve millions for 
the maintenance of criminals, and thirty-five millions 
to the members of the bar; it would be a valuable 
and instructive question for the arithmetic of these 
complainers : how many millions would be required for 
our courts and their criminals, if the vast and whole- 
some power of the Gospel, and its advocates, and defend- 
ers, were unknown in the land ? Brethren, believe it, 
or not, that Gospel, with its hard-working, persevering, 
servants and laborers— its elevated morality — its pure 
principles and motives — its examples of fidelity, cour- 
age, and patriotism — -its revealed Providence over the 
destinies of nations, as well as individuals — its supreme 
God as Lord of heaven and earth — and all the fearful 
consequences of unfaithfulness in this life, and that which 
is to come : is, without question, the very sheet anchor 
of the ship of state- — the corner-stone in the great tem- 
ple of our liberty — the one cluster cf the otherwise 
withered and decaying vine, in which there is a blessing ; 
and for whose sake it shall be spared — the towering and 



HOPES OF THE REPUBLIC. 



89 



majestic oak, u whose substance is in itself/' spreading 
and expanding every year; that "tree of life" under 
whose " shadow we may sit with great delight/ ' " whose 
fruit shall be sweet to our taste," and " whose leaves are 
for the healing " of this and " all other nations." 

Such, brethren, are some of the grounds and reasons 
for encouragement and hope in contemplating the uncer- 
tain and mysterious future of morality and religion in 
the Republic. But what are hopes, without the means 
of their realization ? Your attention, therefore, in the 
next discourse, will be directed to the necessary inquiry, 
What is the most effectual mode of securing and per- 
petuating religion in the nation ? As we separate, let 
us not forget that we are stewards of the Lord, entrusted 
with the keeping and exemplification of His Gospel; 
and though but individuals, we are charged with a sacred 
trust for ourselves, our fellow men, and the glory of our 
God. We must " work the works of Him that sent us 
while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work." 



8* 



SERMON 



V. 



VARIETY OF 



SECTS. 



THE ROMISH SYSTEM. 



St. James iii: 16. — "For where envying and strife is, there is 
confusion, and every evil work." 

1 St. Peter v: 3. — "Neither as being lords over God's heri- 
tage, but being ensamples to the nock," 

In resuming the series of discourses, which was Pro- 
videntially interrupted on the evening of the first Sunday 
of the present month,* it is proper to call your attention 
to those subjects which passed under review in the last, 
in order that you may see the connection of that, with 
the considerations that will be presented at this time, 
and during the two coming months. An effort was then 
made to derive hopes for the increase and continuance 
of Christianity in this nation, from the growing con- 
sciousness of our dangers — the facts, that Christianity is 
part of the common and statute law of the land — that 
there is a moral sentiment, and a high appreciation of 
integrity among large numbers— and the actual existence, 
and pervading influence of the Gospel itself in all our bor- 



* an attack of sickness. 



VARIETY OF SECTS. 



91 



ders. The mind, once convinced from these considerations 
that we have much to inspire encouragement and confi- 
dence, would naturally inquire, how are these hopes to be 
most effectually realized ? Or what is the best mode for ex- 
tending and perpetuating Christianity in this, or any other 
1 nation ? We are, therefore, met together this evening to 
consider, in part, this important question. Strictly speak- 
ing, there can be but one answer to this — -the best mode for 
the promulgation of the Gospel among any people, and 
bringing them under its righteous and blessed dominion, 
is that which Christ himself instituted and prescribed — ■ 
which His apostles proceeded to carry out immediately 
after His ascension ; and which generally was faith- 
fully adhered to during the first three centuries of the 
Christian era. Had that divine plan been continued 
without change since that period, there would be no oc- 
casion for such an inquiry as that now before us ; but 
rival systems of man's device — departures from evangel- 
ical truth and apostolic order — and a multitude of 
separations and divisions, are presented everywhere; so 
that Christianity no longer seems to human eyes, like the 
great Sun of the Universe — one, indivisible, and full of 
dazzling glory — the only source of light, life, and cheer- 
fulness — nor as prominent, and conspicuous, amid a 
multitude of dimly shining stars ; but it seems to have 
been brought down to a level with them — to be only one 
of a constellation- — at which men gaze with the seeming 
conviction that all are equally the work of the Creator; 
and deserving a different measure of admiration, only 
as they excel each other, in size and brilliancy. Men 
contemplate all bodies, calling themselves Christian, as 
equally authorized to dispense the blessings of the Gos- 
pel, equally the institution of Christ — and when they 



92 



SERMON V. 



are seeking connection with His church in the public 
profession of their faith, they seem to forget that Christ 
instituted one body, and prescribed one mode for the sal- 
vation of men. We must, therefore, take men as we find 
them, the advocates of a variety of systems, and mea- 
sures; and endeavor to discover the true and divine way, 
by weighing all human schemes, and existing institu- 
tions, with sound reason, experience, observation, and 
holy scripture. We cannot set aside the inquiry as unim- 
portant, and leave the rising generation to grow up under 
the delusion that there is no stability in Christianity — 
that all modes are equally successful in its promulgation, 
and that they be multiplied to any extent, that human 
ingenuity may devise. Every individual must be "fully 
persuaded in his own mind/ ; after mature examination 
and study, according as he has ability and opportunity : 
and it is likewise the bounden obligation of the ministry, 
not only to teach the truth, but warn against error; how- 
ever attractive the form under which it is presented, or 
closely mingled with that which is genuine and valuable. 
And this obligation becomes more imperative, according 
as these forms of error are multiplied, and gain their 
too credulous advocates. 

There are those among us who believe the great variety 
of sects, and religious bodies, a very efficient, and per- 
haps the best, mode of imparting the blessings of the 
Gospel to this nation. On account of the toleration 
enjoyed here, there is no country where they are as 
numerous, being from sixty to one hundred in num- 
ber. The argument used is, that as there are various 
classes — degrees of ignorance and knowledge — difference 
of opinion, and taste ; churches should be so varied, that 
they may be suited to all — so that while one embraces 



VAKIETY OF SECTS. 



93 



the wealthy — another the educated — another the middle 
class — another the poor — another the foreigner, there 
may be a home for all ; and thus the greatest number 
will be reached, and all will be in some way cared for, 
receiving his portion in due season. It is also argued 
that a profitable emulation and rivalry, are thus excited; 
and that they thus " provoke one another to love and to 
good works " — that zeal awakens the sluggish — industry 
excites the indolent — perseverance arouses the despond- 
ing, and success encourages the despairing. But when 
we contemplate the actual workings of the sect spirit, 
since its first appearance — the true influence of separa- 
tions and divisions among Christians ; how different are 
the results we behold — how the head is bowed in shame, 
over the desolations they have caused, and the promising 
harvests they have blighted ; and we take up the lan- 
guage of the apostle, as most forcibly and truly embody- 
ing their true character and influence: 6i Wh3re envying 
and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." 
The success and triumph of one body, has awakened envy 
and a spirit of detraction in the less fortunate and favored. 
No struggles and contests have been more violent, or pro- 
tracted, than those of rival religious factions; and what 
have been the consequences ? Not, certainly, love for 
Christ, and deeds of kindness — not the spread of the 
Gospel, and building men up in the faith and fear of God: 
but confusion — unsettling their minds — destroying confi- 
dence — removing the land-marks — and every evil work — 
exciting malice, intolerance and persecution — abridging 
personal liberty by imprisonment, and depriving of 
life by slow torture, the axe or the flames. So, likewise, 
if the tendency and design of a variety of sects in a 
nation, are to gather in the different classes of men, as 
they nre distinguished and separated from each other by 



94 



SERMON V, 



occupations, worldly circumstances, and intellectual 
attainments; and make them feel tkat they are distinct 
from one another in their religion, as in other things ; 
are we not introducing a leaven of discontent, suspicion 
and hostility; which, like sectional prejudices, interests, 
and collisions, may ultimately lead to open ruptures, and 
ceaseless contests ? Everything in a nation should tend 
to unite, rather than separate — but what more effectual 
mode of arraying men against each other can be found, 
than the inculcation of this idea, of a church for the 
poor, the ignorant, the artisan, and the rich, the edu- 
cated and the refined 5 that God had prescribed different 
conditions of salvation, according to men's varying cir- 
cumstances, and attainments — and that though they may 
be connected together as employer and employed, citizens 
of the same community, state and nation, under the same 
system of laws, amenable to the same tribunals : yet in 
those things that relate to their best, because eternal 
interests, they are separated ; and have their distinct, 
independent, spiritual home, to which they are always to 
resort for comfort, guidance, instruction and blessing. 
Of all things, members of the same confederacy should 
be united, if possible, in their religion ; and when they 
are, it will become a bond of union, and preserve a gov- 
ernment, when everything else tends to its destruction. 
Is that, then, a judicious policy; is it true patriotism, to 
advocate the multiplication of religious bodies, to stand 
arrayed against each other, to engage in controversy and 
strife ; because all classes and conditions may thus seem 
to be more effectually reached ? In making partisans do 
we always make Christians ! Let us examine if the 
Scriptures do not show us a more excellent way ! 

We know that the great burden of the sacred volume 
is an exhortation to unity. Very far back in the dim 



VARIETY 0£ SECTS. 



95 



obscurity of time, before the patriarch had received his 
significant name of Abraham, in token of a greater 
blessing from his Lord, he said to Lot, "Let there be 
no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between 
my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. "* 
The affectionate benediction of Joseph to his brethren, at 
their departure for the land of Canaan, to make known 
to Jacob their father that he was yet alive, was, " See 
that ye fall not out by the way."f The most touching 
strains that accompanied the Psalmist's instrument of 
many strings, were, " behold how good and how pleasant 
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity/' J What 
was the design of the incarnation, sufferings, and death, 
of our blessed Lord, but to gather together in one house- 
hold, His scattered, that they all might be one in Him ? 
In His inimitable prayer, as recorded in John xvii, He 
uses this expressive language relative to all that believe 
in Him, "that they all maybe one; as thou, Father, art 
in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us : that 
the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Under 
whatever image the Church is represented, whether as a 
bride, a widow, the body, a fold, she is one; and though 
His children may be scattered over the face of the land, 
though there may be a flock with every pastor, yet they 
all constitute one fold, one body, even as there is "one 
Lord, one faith, one baptism." || There is nothing against 
which Christians are more frequently cautioned than 
divisions and separations; and their sad consequences 
are portrayed by analogies and illustrations which cannot 
fail to be understood; as, when St. Paul said to the 
Corinthians, "for as the body is one, and hath many 
members, and all the members of that one body, being 



* Gen. xiii : 8. 
J Ps. cxxxiii : 1. 



fGen. xlv: 24. 
|| Eph. iv: 5. 



96 SER'MON V. 

many, are one body, so also is Christ."* Why, then, 
have we these exhortations to unity — these striking and 
expressive comparisons, setting it forth — if Christ and 
His Apostles knew not what is in man, and the mode 
by which his necessities could be supplied, and the 
greatest good carried home to his soul ? It should be a 
sufficient condemation of any principle or system that it 
is contrary to the plain teaching of God's word. 

These divisions are also opposed to the analogy of things. 
In nature, the single current of air is comparatively 
powerless ; leaving no traces of its progress, and yielding 
to every obstacle in its path : but let several currents be 
united, and weakness at once becomes strength, and 
they sweep over the land like the united regiments of a 
mighty conqueror. Contrast the force and influence of 
the many tributaries separately, with the almost resistless 
Sowings of the majestic river, which they combine to 
form. Why stand our primeval forests, battling for 
scores of years with the furious storm and tempest, and 
remain unconquered; while the scattered trees of the 
open plain, are prostrated by far less commotion of the 
elements ? The single extended wire breaks asunder 
under a few pounds' weight : but united with others, in 
the enlarged cable, and it bears up safely over the mad- 
dened stream, and yawning gulf, the extended train, 
freighted with hundreds of living beings, or the fruits 
of human industry and skill. When does a nation expect 
victory and glory from its arms? when there is a variety 
of leaders, and conflicting counsels, disagreement, and 
confusion ? when each division operates separately and 
alone, each envious of the other, and one gaining greater 
renown by the other's misfortunes ? or when there is one 

*1 Cor. xii: 12. 



V A R 1 K T Y F S E C T S . 



97 



will, one unbroken system — and such a combination of 
their forces, that all obstacles bow before them ? when 
they shall be so closely banded together in one body, that 
the mysterious bond of their union shall seem as power- 
ful, as the principle of attraction, that unites the parti- 
cles of matter in the unbroken mass of rock ? If, then, 
• this law of " strength in unity" obtains in nature, and 
all lower and common things, with which we are con- 
stantly familiar ; and that we see verified every day and 
hour of our lives ; does it cease its influence, and control, 
when the inquiry is relative to the best mode of spread- 
ing the Gospel among the multitude, and bringing them 
to obey its commands on earth, that they may be exalted 
with Christ in heaven ? Are disagreement, disorder, 
many wills, variety of systems, division of God's embat- 
tled host, favorable to the success of His righteous cause ? 
the subduing the pride of His strong enemy, and mak- 
ing " the kingdoms of this world to become the king- 
doms of our Lord and of His Christ ?"* Have we 
authority thus to change the idea, as well as language of 
the apostle, and make it read, " where envying and strife 
is," there is order, and every good ivork ? Are strength, 
influence, harmony, and success, associated with unity, 
order, agreement and concert of action, in all things else, 
but the means of the spread of the Gospel i and is that 
alone to be promulgated, and made to triumph, by dis- 
cord, separations, envying, hostility and constant opposi- 
tion among those who profess to be looking and laboring 
that God's " kingdom may conie," and that "His will 
may be done on earth as it is in heaven :" Our reason, 
and common sense, unhesitatingly reject such an idea; 



* Rev. xi : 15. 
9 



98 



SERMON V. 



and we feel convinced, that all God's laws in grace and the 
system of the Gospel, harmonize as uniformly and attrac- 
tively, as they do in nature and the common things of life. 

This multiplication of religious bodies is, moreover, 
a fruitful source of unbelief; and for this reason, if 
there were no other, is very far from being the best 
mode of planting Christianity in the nation. If our 
Saviour, when on earth, prayed that His disciples might 
be one, in order that the world might know that the 
Father had sent Him — thus making Christian unity, one 
of the evidences of His own divinity and heavenly mission; 
what must not divisions, and disagreements, produce, but 
denial of that divinity, rejection of that mission, and all 
the holy truths and principles it was instrumental in 
bringing from heaven to earth ? The law of cause and 
effect, is as clear in this, as in the changes of nature, and 
the events of life. Take the history of any department 
of science or philosophy — is not the degree of confidence 
you awaken, generally proportioned to the harmony and 
agreement of its advocates ? and does not that theory 
and system make slow progress, and gain few friends, or 
perhaps fail to secure any accessions ; because of the 
ceaseless differences, and want of concord among their 
professedly warm admirers, or originators ? Do we not 
hear men constantly distrusting the reality of friendship, 
and integrity : because they, who would have us believe 
they are actuated by these holy principles, so frequently 
dishonor them, by acts of unkindness, dishonesty and 
malevolence ? So, too, when men contemplate the great 
number of religious bodies, enrolled under the same ban- 
ner, having the same guide-book, aiming at the same 
great end ; and yet separated — at times arrayed against 
each other, and differing in outward organization and 
spiritual things ; what must be the effect but distrust. 



VARIETY OF SECTS. 



99 



doubt, and final rejection of the faith of our Lord Jesus 
Christ ? There are thousands now wandering in the 
mazes of unbelief, who were first led astray, by this sad 
state of things in the history of the progress of Chris- 
tianity. Even the unenlightened heathen have the dis- 
crimination to perceive how inconsistent is the variety of 
' Christians sent forth for their enlightenment and salva- 
tion ; with the one revelation put into their hands, the 
one atonement, church, faith and Lord spoken of ; and 
the one heaven, where all are seeking their everlasting 
resting place and home. If we knew the experience of 
the ministers of God's word, who have inquired the rea- 
sons for men's rejection of the Gospel way of salvation; 
or if we could study the secrets of their hearts, who are 
yet " without hope and without God in the world j" it is 
believed that we should find this spirit of division, this con- 
stant multiplication of organizations under the plea of 
gaining a purer Christianity; erected into a wall of ada- 
mant, that stands as a seemingly insuperable breast-work, 
between hundreds and perhaps thousands, and all the 
brightening hopes and eternal rewards that the Gospel 
holds out ; while they perhaps may die, in their present 
condition of peril, to experience in eternity the fearful 
realities, which no unfaithfulness or differences of pro- 
fessing Christians can prevent their inheriting; since 
they sin against undoubted light, and testimony that cen- 
turies have not been able to overturn. From these 
weighty considerations, drawn from Scripture, reason, 
analogy and facts, we think the position is conclusively 
established, that religion is not most successfully, nor rap- 
idly promoted in a nation, by separations, and divisions 
among those who are already its friends and advocates. 

But while there is this great, and we may say, lamen- 
table variety of religious bodies, there may be said to be 



100 



SERMON V. 



only three distinct systems for carrying on the work, 
although they all have many things in common, and 
agree in many essentials; yet these systems are marked, 
prominent, and influential, with their respective advocates; 
and may be denominated, the Romish, the Denomina- 
tional, and Episcopal or Church systems. The first will 
be briefly considered in the remainder of this discourse, 
the second on the first Sunday in April, and the third 
will close the series on the first Sunday in May. 

The Romish system is venerable for its antiquity ; but 
not the antiquity which sets forth primitive and apostolic 
Christianity. It has been the prevailing religion of many 
nations for centuries — the disburser of their wealth — the 
teacher of their youth — the conservator of their morals — 
the keeper of their faith — not only protected by, but the 
guide of their kings and rulers — wielding a long, unbro- 
ken, and absolute influence and dominion, and having, 
humanly speaking, all means, energies and powers so 
entirely under its control, that if it be what it professes 
to be, nothing seemed wanting, to make its every land, a 
paradise of saints. But what a scene those nations pre- 
sent, that have been placed under its moulding process, 
like clay in the hands of the potter. What people, after 
successive generations have been submitted to all its best 
and most efficient influences, can be said to present the 
morality and piety of the Gospel as prominent character- 
istics, and controlling principles of action, among any con- 
siderable number? When France was most entirely 
under its control, and for a long period had been sitting 
at the feet of that church as its spiritual mother, it 
became a nation of infidels. * Thus it has been said 
"the massacre of St. Bartholomew revenged itself upon 



* See Church Review, vol. 



3, page 271 . 



VAIilETY OF SECTS. 



101 



France by leading directly to those influences which made 
Romanism what it was in that beautiful country in the 
times of Louis XVI, and that again as naturally gave 
birth to the infidelity of Voltaire, and the atheism, anar- 
chy and butcheries of the French Revolution." If we 
turn our eyes to the vine-clad hills and fertile valleys of 
Spain, in what can it be said to be deficient as regards 
fertility and variety of soil, location, climate, exuberance 
of production, and the rewards of industry — what nation 
has been more gifted intellectually, or had greater 
capacity for enlightenment and elevation 5 and yet the 
words of the inimitable missionary hymn of our own 
Heber, are as applicable to benighted Spain as Eastern 
heathen lands, where 

''Every prospect pleases, 
And only man is vile." 

And yet here, too, for centuries, this system has had 
sway. Wherever we travel, whether through the States 
of the Church — along the banks of the Rhine — in the 
sunny South, or the colder North — through the village 
or city — we may see the work of art and the monument 
of genius — the church that has been hundreds of years 
in building, and the library whose first volumes have 
been gathering dust upon its shelves, perhaps for more 
than a thousand years — but we cannot find a Christian 
nation, distinguished for the observance of the Lord's 
day in a devout and religious manner, and the practice 
of those other holy duties which the Gospel enjoins in 
all the relations of life, and upon all classes of men. On 
the contrary, it cannot probably be denied, that infidelity 
is generally prevalent, and multitudes everywhere fast 

9* 



102 



SERMON V. 



losing, even the semblances of religion, and yielding 
themselves to the lowest sensuality and vice. If we 
direct our attention to this continent, I presume no one 
needs information relative to the condition of Mexico 
and the South American States — countries first discov- 
ered by Romanists, visited by their missionaries — and 
ever since under their influence and control in all things 
that can contribute to their temporal welfare and eternal 
happiness. Their system seems to have made those 
nations Christian in little else than name. But we are 
especially interested in noting the working of this sys- 
tem in our own land; not that it ever has been expected 
even by the greatest alarmists, that it could have 
become predominant during the short period of its exis- 
tence here \ but that we may discover whether it is best 
calculated to promote the great ends of the Gospel in 
this Republic . The presentation of a few statistics pre- 
pared by another, and some admissions by their ecclesi- 
astical authorities, will aid us in this inquiry. * " With 
what success have the Romanists met in our land? 
Maryland was originally settled by them. Until the 
year 1820, Florida was as completely theirs as Cuba is 
at present. In Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and all 
the territory west of the Mississippi, they held the 
ground, and had a golden opportunity for laying broad 
and deep their foundations. But in which of these States 
have they now a predominant control ? In Maryland there 
are but 65 Romish churches, while there are 800 
Protestant. Of 152 in Florida, only five belong to the 
Pope. Of 278 in Louisiana, only fifty-five. Of 134 in 
Texas, only thirteen. For the last fifty years, Romish 

*Rev. Mr. Henderson's Sermon. 



VARIETY OF SECTS. 



103 



emigrants have landed on our shores by millions. There 
have also been monthly importations of ecclesiastics, who 
now number 7 archbishops, 33 bishops, and 1,754 priests. 
There have been started, and kept in operation, 20 col- 
leges, 29 theological seminaries, and 120 female semina- 
ries, and 22 weekly, 1 monthly, 1 quarterly and 2 
annual periodicals. But with all these appliances, what 
have they gained on the Protestants ? What is their 
comparative strength in numbers ? The Protestant 
houses of worship are as 32 to 1. The nominal Protest- 
ant population as 12 to 1, and the actual sittings in 
Protestant churches are as 22 to 1." It was estimated 
several years ago by one of their Bishops, that consider- 
ing the vast emigration, and the various means they had 
employed they should number five millions, while their 
actual strength was then less than two. The Romish 
Bishop of Chicago recently issued a pastoral letter, in 
which he gives probably an impartial view of the condi- 
tion of his church in this country. He says: "Our 
church is destitute, her sanctuary is empty, her ministers 
are sinking under the weight of labor, there are none to 
replace those that fall, there are no means of supplying 
immediate wants, of diffusing more widely the blessings 
of religion, or of educating those whom we might look 
to as a provision for future necessities. Where can we 
find a devoted offspring to fill up the thin and ever 
decaying ranks of the holy tribe? Your own children 
refuse to become God's ministers? Is it not manifest 
that religion is lost, if confided to this keeping? To 
prevent this calamity, we must turn our thoughts to for- 
eign lands, to those lands where the faith has flourished 
amidst the fiercest tempests. To instruct you in the 
ways of God, to prepare you for heaven, to recall you in 



104 



SERMON V. 



life from error, into the ways of holiness, to sanctify 
with the blessings of religion, your dying moments, for 
all these huly purposes, we must in a great measure look 
to distant countries, to Ireland, Germany, France and 
Italy. From the same remote regions are to be invited, 
with encouragement, learned professors, who, living 
among us, may impart the education best suited to our 
country and condition. Books and seminaries and sala- 
ries, and the ornaments of the church and sanctuary, 
these too are to be procured only with an effort and 
expense that fills us with fear." Such are the admis- 
sions of one high in authority, and such is the actual 
condition of the Romish church in this land, according 
to well authenticated confessions and statistics. I have 
relied chiefly upon these to show that it is not the best 
system for perpetuating morality and religion in the 
nation j although this is but a small part of the argument 
that can be adduced; and should we therefore resort to 
proscription, to pains and penalties, that it may be 
checked and overcome ? Never. Let there be the same 
liberty of conscience to all, and whenever error is to be 
opposed let it be met, not by denunciation — combina- 
tions of men to deprive its advocates of their civil privi- 
leges — but with the armor of God's truth, and the 
strength which will always be furnished by the holy 
principles of His inspired, uncorrupted word. 

So, likewise, to check the dangerous influence of sepa- 
rations and divisions, let each examine for himself — 
study the Scriptures, early Church history — reject every 
human organization — give no encouragement to the 
common idea that it matters not to what communion you 
belong — inquire for the Church of the Apostles, and the 
first three centuries, and believe that creed which rests 



VARIETY OF SECTS. 



105 



upon God's word as its foundation, and has had no addi- 
tion by its transmission along the changing track of more 
than eighteen hundred years.* " The visible Church 
of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which 
the pure Word of God is preached and the sacraments be 
duly administered according to Christ's ordinance in all 
those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." 
" Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old 
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye 
shall find rest for your souls. "f 



* 19th of the Thirty-nine Articles. f Jer. vi: 16. 



SERMON" VI. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 

1 Corinthians xiv: 26. — "Let all things be done unto edifying." 

It will be remembered that we are now engaged in an 
examination of the different modes that are actually in 
operation for disseminating Christianity throughout our 
land ; and that it was stated in the last discourse, that 
notwithstanding the great variety of religious bodies in 
the country, there are three distinct systems ; which 
were designated respectively, as the Romish, the Denomi- 
national, and Episcopal or Church systems. The first 
having been already considered, the second will now 
occupy our attention; while the third will close the 
series on the evening of the first Sunday in May. 

In discussing the subject before us this evening, it is 
not designed to pronounce judgment upon the doctrines 
of any religious body, nor attempt to convict of any error 
in faith by bringing them to the test of Holy Scrip- 
ture ; for it is neither my disposition, nor privilege, to 
enter upon so unprofitable a work in a land where no 
restraint is imposed upon religious opinion. But it is 
proposed to consider the mode, by which the Christian 
denominations are promulgating the truth of God, as 
they have received it, and aiming to make this a Christian 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 107 

people. There surely can be no impropriety in such a 
discussion, when kept within the bounds of charity, and 
conducted with reference to the apostolic rule in the 
text, a let all things be done unto edifying." The great 
end of the Gospel is to instruct, improve, enlighten, and 
elevate ; therefore all the details of the work of bringing 
men to a knowledge and practice of the principles and 
precepts of revelation, should help to promote these ends. 

It is not sufficient to hold sound doctrine, and be care- 
less in regard to the manner of its promulgation — to 
enjoin public worship, and prescribe no profitable mode 
by which it shall be conducted — to exalt the preaching 
of the Gospel as a means of grace, and be indifferent 
about the character of the persons who are to deliver 
God's message to man — to command each individual to 
pray, and yet be unconcerned whether the duty is per- 
formed humbly or thoughtlessly, familiarly or reve- 
rentially — but "all things are to be done unto edifying." 
By this rule it is proposed to consider the subject before 
us, and draw our conclusions from the practical work- 
ings of the mode which has been generally found among 
the various denominations. It may seem singular to 
speak of this agreement among them, when they are 
separated by distinct organizations, and forms of doc- 
trine ; yet there are certain prominent peculiarities 
belonging to all, which go to make up what may be 
called the denominational system. In maintaining many 
great and fundamental principles, we acknowledge their 
influence and power — in opposing the overflowings of 
ungodliness, they have done most valuable service — in 
zeal, labors and sacrifices, they have furnished bright 
examples to their fellow Christians of all names; but the 
question is not, whether good has been done, but what is 



108 



SERMON VI. 



the best mode for the extension of Christianity among 

men ? is that system which receives their general 
approval, calculated to lay broad and deep the founda- 
tions, and rear a superstructure of Gospel faith and holi- 
ness, to the honor and glory of God ? If it is, a careful 
examination will serve to render its excellence and value, 
more prominent, and conspicuous : if it is not, we can- 
not too soon be made conscious of its deficiencies, and 
taught to guard against the dangers in which they are 
involved; for we must continue to remember the apostolic 
rule, "let all things be done unto edifying. " "For God 
is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all 
churches of the saints."* 

The first feature that arrests our attention in contem- 
plating the history and present condition of the different 
denominations of Christendom, is change, a want of stead- 
fastness in their adherence to those standards of doctrine, 
with which they began ; which they professed to derive 
directly from the pure fountain of the inspired Word, and 
which, therefore, had the highest, because a divine claim, 
to man's implicit faith. It is scarcely necessary to say, 
that stability, and uniformity, are absolutely necessary 
to permanence and success in everything ; and that the 
surest and speediest way to undermine any theory, and 
institution, whether human or divine, is to divest them 
of their attribute of fixedness, and furnish them with a 
succession of garbs, in which to appear before men, for 
their contemplation and acceptance. And yet facts com- 
pel us to say that this is the very attitude in which 
Christianity is presented by the various religious bodies 
It cannot be said that one of the more influential and 



*1 Cor. xiv: 33. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM, 109 

prominent denominations has remained true to the prin- 
ciples with which it began. Originally there was one 
organization for each — one system of faith, and one mode 
of government. Now of the three most numerous 
bodies, there are four varieties of Methodists, not less 
than six of Presbyterians, eight of Baptists, with more 
or less change, marking all the inferior Societies. But 
not alone are they divided, and arrayed against each 
other in the attitude of hostile opponents ; but the pro- 
fessed successors of the original body, and the ostensible 
inheritors of its standard of faith, have rejected its prin- 
ciples, and suppressed its fundamental truths. The doc- 
trines of the Trinity, the divinity of our Saviour, original 
sin, the atonement, and the nature of the two Sacraments, 
are not taught now as they were by Calvin, Knox, and 
the Westminster divines. The Confession of Faith teaches 
individual election and reprobation — -speaks of baptism 
a as a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace, of the 
ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of 
sins '* — " that the grace promised is not only offered, but 
really exhibited and conferred by the Holy G-host " — that 
there is a Sacramental union between the sign and the 
thing signified — -and that in the Lord's Supper, "worthy 
receivers do inwardly, by faith, really and indeed feed 
upon Christ crucified; the body and blood of Christ, 
being there, not corporally and carnally, yet as really 
and truly, but spiritually, present to the faith of believers 
in that ordinance, as the elements themselves are to their 
outward senses. " Yet when does a Presbyterian pulpit 
announce the unpopular tenets of Calvanism — a limited 
atonement — and inculcate the general necessity of the 
Sacraments for spiritual life and grovth ? On the con- 

10 



110. 



SERMON VI. 



trary, are we not told that those tenets are now seldom 
entertained ; while, in some parts of our country, infant 
baptism has gone entirely into disuse — the Lord's Sup- 
per is never administered more frequently than once in 
two or three months ; and generally regarded, not as a 
mean of grace, but a simple memorial. It is the humili- 
ating testimony of their observant divines, and their 
periodical press, that there has been everywhere, in 
Europe, Great Britain, and the United States, a general 
giving up of those more prominent principles, which 
were incorporated into the Confession of Faith, and 
regarded as essential to the very existence of the Church. 

When we look at the numerous body of the Metho- 
dists, and trace their history, we find not that stability 
and uniformity which are necessary to inspire confidence, 
and lay the foundation for perpetuity and influence. To 
this day we hear the most unqualified praises of their 
founder, the Rev. John Wesley; their people are referred 
to his sermons, and other teachings, as setting forth the 
principles by which they are guided ; and yet the Meth- 
odism of 1855, would scarcely be recognized as the 
growth of the Society he established. For more than 
fifty years he solemnly reiterated injunctions like these. 
" Carefully avoid whatever has a tendency to separate 
men from the Church. Exhort all our people to keep 
close to the Church and Sacraments. Warn against 
despising the prayers of the Church. Against calling 
our Society the Church. Against calling our preachers 
ministers: our houses, meeting houses; call them plain 
preaching houses or chapels/' "If the people put ours 
in the room of the Church Service, we hurt them that 
stay with us, and ruin them that leave us. Let this be 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. Ill 



well observed. I fear when the Methodists leave the 
Church, God will leave them."* This language seems to 
have been literally prophetic, for one of their own most 
estimable ministers said, in March, 1852, of England, 
where the body originated: " Desolation reigns in many 
of the most fruitful parts of Methodism." And after 
describing the sad condition of those towns where it had 
been most flourishing, he says: " To witness all this is 
most distressing, heart-breaking! Religion weeps neg- 
lected in these circumstances. No revivals, poor con- 
gregations, dispirited and mourning disciples, jealousies, 
hard speeches, and scandalous, ribald reproaches against 
each other, are the bitter fruits of this state of things. "f 
It is now ascertained that the loss to the body cannot be 
less than near ninety thousand members in three years. 
In the last sermon Mr. Wesley published, only two years 
before his death, and four years after the Society was 
established in this country, he says: "I hold all the 
doctrines of the Church of England. I love her Liturgy. 
I believe one reason why God is pleased to continue my 
life so long, is to confirm the Methodists in their present 
purpose, not to separate from the Church, Though ye 
have, and will have a thousand temptations to leave it, 
and set up for yourselves : regard them not; be Church 
of England men still."! In that Church he breathed his 
last, asserting unceasingly his devout attachment; and 
was thoroughly proof against every appeal to renounce 
its Apostolic and holy communion. Yet in one year after 

* Ch. Review, vol. 5, page 421, 22. Wesley and Methodism, 
by Isaac Taylor, London. Tour in U. S. and Canada, by James 
Dixon, B. D. 

f Dr. Dixon's Tour, &c. 

J Church Review, vol. 5, page 422. 



112 



S E R M N V I . 



his death, the British Conference voted to decide by lot, 
whether they should administer the Sacraments, which 
had never been done in Wesley's life time. The next, 
the rule of Wesley, "not to preach in church houses/' 
was expunged. The third, they repudiated "gowns, 
cassocks, bands and surplices/' In doctrine, the articles 
of religion were mutilated and diminished in number by 
Wesley ; the offices changed and abridged, though retain- 
ing much sound teaching; and thus the work of change 
has been going on till we read of the last General Con- 
ference South, that the " Discipline was brought under 
very general revision. Many changes were made. The 
axe was laid at the root of many a time-honored sentence 
and paragraph. Change was the order of the night. 
Some of these changes, as in the baptismal and ordina- 
tion services, were, no doubt, just and necessary in order 
to conform the ritual to the doctrinal views of the 
church/'* And yet that Discipline was Wesley's work ; 
the fruit of many labors; anxious hours of thought; and 
embodied the doctrines he taught in his discourses, and 
held up as the standard of their faith. And yet it was 
changed to be accommodated to the present faith of the 
body; a significant evidence of departure from the first 
principles of their Society. We might proceed to give 
as convincing proof of instability in other religious 
organizations, if it were necessary. Our only object in 
the presentation of these unquestioned facts, is to 
establish the position, that religion must become stable,, 
fixed, and uniform among religious bodies, before confi- 
dence can be established, and a firm foundation laid, for 
that " righteousness which exalteth a nation/' As long 

* Richmond Christian Advocate,. Jnne, 1854. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 113 

as changes are made in doctrines, which come from God; 
and can no more be remoulded, than the forms of nature ; 
as long as each man is told he can frame his own 
religion, instead of taking that which God has provided 
for him; so long we shall find men ready to lay aside the 
old, and adopt new principles for human guidance; and 
those Christian denominations in which they are incorpo- 
rated, will sooner or later feel the effects of their 
reformatory labors, in the withdrawal of confidence, 
diminished numbers, and final dissolution. That, cer- 
tainly is a defective plan for spreading Christianity among 
a people, that presents no permanent truths, nov fixed 
principles; but recognizes the necessity of change, with 
each passing generation; and whose history is marked 
by vacillations so numerous, that the element of truth 
becomes obscured and finally lost; amidst the additions, 
novelties, and vaunted improvements of human wisdom. 

Another argument against the denominational system, 
is its partial withholding of the Holy Scriptures from the 
people. This will seem a strange, and contradictory 
statement, when you consider the thousands that have 
been expended in scattering the Bible broadcast through 
the land; and translating it into more than one hundred 
and fifty different languages, for the use of the various 
nations of the earth; but I refer to the keeping back of 
its glad tidings from the worshiping assemblies. To 
send the book of God to every family in the land, is a 
noble work; but how many thousands are seldom or 
never opened, we may infer from the fact, that there 
are so many who have no interest to prompt them to seek 
a knowledge of its saving truths; but when they are 
gathered in the sanctuary, set apart for worship, on the 
day hallowed by God, and consecrated to religious 

10* 



114 



SBRMOX VI. 



things; when opportunity, circumstances, and time, favor 
the presentation of the revealed word; we find that this 
class of Christians, instead of making use of these 
occasions for disseminating the greatest possible amount 
of religious knowledge; provide for the reading of half 
a chapter, never more than one; and this most generally 
from the New Testament, to the exclusion of the Old; 
seeming to forget that "all scripture is given by inspi- 
ration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, 
for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the 
man of God may be perfect; thoroughly furnished unto 
all good works."* If these denominations are as really 
impressed with the importance of spreading the divine 
Word every where, among all conditions of men, as is 
indicated by their liberal contributions, and zeal in the 
Bible cause; would it not naturally be expected; indeed 
does not Christian consistency demand, that they furnish 
their gathered congregations with abundant supplies of 
the seed of the holy Word; instead of such minute 
portions; as if the Lord's garner can be exhausted? In 
consequence of this limited reading of Scripture, do we 
not find a lamentable ignorance of the Bible among 
large numbers of their people ! Have they not been 
calling public attention to this neglect through their 
press; thus showing consciousness of the great evil? 
while one of their own ministers,*}* with twenty-seven 
years experience, in a flourishing New England town, 
speaking of the young, who came there from different 
sections, says: "I find in my frequent intercourse with 
them, that they possess a knowledge of none, or nearly 
none, of the distinctive principles of the Christian faith. 



*2 Tim. iii: 16, 17. 



f Dr. Edson. of Lowell, Mass, 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 115 



I find in them a great ignorance of the Bible; which 
they profess to take as their guide. I find many, not 
only unable to repeat the ten commandments, but 
entirely unaware of their being any ten commandments 
at all." Another equally creditable authority states 
that persons, spoken of as " coming out bright Christians 
from a revival, could neither repeat the commandments 
nor the Lord's prayer."* Could this most lamentable 
ignorance have existed, even if there had been no other 
means of instruction, if the Old and New Testaments 
had been faithfully and largely read to them every 
Sunday; and the ten commandments as frequently pro- 
nounced in their hearing ? Can there be religion in the 
nation, unless the language of Scripture is made familiar 
as household words; unless it is known from the least to 
the greatest, and all are permitted to hear the joyful 
sound of God's heaven-born truth ? and will this be done 
by placing the Bible in every house, where there is no 
disposition to seek its pages for the treasure it contains ? 
Suppose that the thirty thousand clergy of the land, 
were to read to their fifteen millions of hearers every 
Lord's day, twelve chapters of the Bible, which is done 
in every Episcopal congregation; what an instrumentality 
for good; twelve chapters to fifteen millions fifty-two 
times a year, besides week day services ! What a leaven 
of God's truth would be spread through this land; what 
light would break through the darkness ! what a blessing 
would be scattered among all classes ! what beauty would 
spring from deformity! what joy from sorrow! what 
holiness from sin ! For is not God's Word, made access- 
ible to us all in our own native tongue, and full of 

*See Church Review, vol, o, page 354. 



116 



SERMON VI. 



blessing for every one who is familiar with its over- 
flowing fountain? Even a Roman pervert, supposed to 
be the celebrated Dr. Newman, in the midst of the delu- 
sions and darkness in which he has become enshrouded, 
cannot repress the memories of his English Bible, which 
became a part of his moral being and spiritual life, 
whilst ministering at the altar of that venerated English 
Church, which he so treacherously abandoned. Even 
he has recently said, and with evident sorrow and 
sincerity : " Who will say that the uncommon beauty, 
and marvelous English of the Protestant Bible is not 
one of the great strong-holds of heresy in this country ! 
It lives on the ear like music that can never be forgot- 
ten; like the sound of church bells, which the convert 
hardly knows how he can forego. Its felicities often seem 
to be almost things rather than mere words. It is part of 
the national mind, and the anchor of national serious- 
ness. The memory of the dead passes into it. The 
potent traditions of childhood are stereotyped in its 
verses. The power of all the griefs and trials of a man 
is hidden beneath its words. It is the representative of 
his best moments; and all that there has been about him 
of soft and gentle, and pure, and penitent, and good, 
speaks to him forever out of his English Bible. It is 
his sacred thing which doubt has never dimmed, con- 
troversy never soiled. In the length and breadth of the 
land, there is not a Protestant with one spark of 
religiousness about him, whose spiritual biography is not 
in his Saxon Bible."* Is this the language of a Roman- 
ist; the spontaneous outcomings of a heart, full of love 
for the deep clear well of God's truth, where all may 

* Banner of the Cross, vol. 16, page 93. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 117 



come and drink ? and can it become "a part of the national 
mind, and the anchor of*national seriousness/' simply by 
being laid upon the shelf of the poor, the ignorant, and 
vicious; and apportioned out twice on the Lord's day, in 
minute quantities of fifteen and twenty verses ? 

The denominational system is objectional from the 
fact, that revivals have been relied upon as the chief 
means for the more general spread of Christianity. Far 
be it from me to say one word against the elements of 
good they contain, or to depreciate the benefits they 
have brought to ungodly souls; for when I remember the 
vacillating condition of the human heart, the zeal and 
coldness, the interest and apathy that mark its history ; 
when I consider the varying state of congregations, at 
one time alive to every duty, and earnest in the work of 
the Christian calling; and at another, indifferent to the 
holiest things, and unconcerned at the spiritual desola- 
tion, that , is within and around them ; I know that if 
there were not a revival, a waking up of the slumbering 
soul ; that religion would die in the individual heart, 
and take its flight from the cold and seemingly lifeless 
congregation; and therefore we are taught to pray on 
every occasion of public worship, that " God will make 
clean our hearts within us, and take not His Holy Spirit 
from us," and on the fourth Advent Sunday, that He "will 
raise up His power and come among us, and with great 
might succor us;" and on Ash Wednesday we are invited 
more fully to open our burdened hearts, in those earnest 
petitions: "Turn thou us, good Lord, and so shall 
we be turned. Be favorable, Lord, be favorable to 
thy people, who turn to thee in weeping, fasting and 
praying."* But this is not the revival system that has 



* See Common Prayer. 



118 



S E R M N VI. 



characterized all the denominations, with few or no 
exceptions, for the last half century. It originated in 
modern times, and is of human invention. It can in no 
sense be divine, for our Saviour's whole teaching was 
designed to exhibit Christianity as a life work ; as some- 
thing to be done as well as felt; and not to be secured 
instantaneously. His sermon on the mount tells of no 
raptures, nor visions; seeks to promote no tumultuous 
excitements; and presents our duty, as consisting of a 
succession of continuous efforts, proceeding from those 
holy motives, that can alone give value to our works. 
The revival as exhibited among them, cannot be called 
a Scriptural system; because if the case of the three 
thousand, brought under deep conviction by the preach- 
ing of Peter, be adduced; we shall find that the reply of 
the apostle to the earnest question, " What shall we do?" 
was, "Kepent and be baptized, every one of you, in the 
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins;' ; * while 
the modern convert professes to receive his pardon at the 
very instant of conversion ; and whilst in the midst 
of his praying friends, prostrate before his God, he 
says he finds the joy and comfort of a forgiven and 
reconciled child : and yet he has not complied with 
Peter's command, to repent ; for he has no time to call 
to mind the sins, whose recollection is to cause it; and 
he does not receive baptism for days and weeks after- 
wards, though the Apostle has associated remission of 
sin with the right reception of that sacrament. If St. 
Paul's conversion is instanced, it can be easily shown 
that it was extraordinary and miraculous, and therefore 
furnishes no criterion; yet allowing that it was not; we 



* Acts ii : 38. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 119 

hear of no pardon of sin, no reconciliation to God — till 
he had passed three days without sight, in humiliation, 
fasting, and prayer; till he had been counseled by a 
minister of the cross, who thus said to him, "And now 
why tarriest thou ? arise, and be baptized, and wash away 
thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord."* 

If we examine the philosophy of the system, we shall 
find little to commend — that while it may be the means 
of some good, it produces incalculable evil among large 
numbers who are brought under its influence. Excite- 
ment, we all know, is never associated with long continu- 
ance of time — it is unnatural, and opposed to the very 
structure of the human mind, which cannot long endure 
intense emotion, without being enfeebled or deranged. 
If we have found our highest spiritual joy when under 
the influence of strongly awakened feeling — if at the 
revival, with all the combined influences there used, we 
are taught to believe we shall experience our purest 
religious joy ; what other alternative presents itself, but 
the necessity of continuing the excitement in order to 
have pleasure in religion ; or else to experience doubt 
and despondency, when the occasion of our pleasant 
emotions has passed away. As we know the excitement 
must be temporary ; what other effect can we anticipate, 
than the falling away of large numbers, who have made 
the loudest professions during a revival. Consequently 
we find that a respectable Methodist preacher, Mr. Ham- 
ilton, said, recently, " Mr. Maffit's last great demonstra- 
tion in Baltimore, was at the Eutaw Church, where, in a 
meeting of four or five months continuance, eight hun- 
dred converts were received into the Church on trial, and 



* Acts xx ii : 16. 



SERMON VI. 



of that number, six months after, not more than forty 
were considered worthy of full membership.^* The ques- 
tion is not alone, was it not a glorious work to find forty 
faithful to their Lord and Master : but what was the con- 
dition of the seven hundred and sixty ! Was not their last 
state worse than the first ? When they found there was no 
reality in their religion — that it did not remain with them, 
when the excitement had passed ; would it not produce a 
want of confidence in the power of Christianity ? and would 
it not be much more difficult ever to awaken them again, 
while the natural and final consequence must be indiffer- 
ence and unbelief. The system likewise discourages the 
humble and distrustful, by holding up a certain standard 
of feeling, to which all must attain, before they are per- 
mitted to regard themselves as favored of God, and the 
recipients of His mercy. Hundreds, who are timid, and 
have exalted views of the holiness of God, are thus kept 
back from His service, and deprived of His blessing; 
because they have been led astray by this false view. 
Our whole land feels the effects of this hitherto wonder- 
ful agency in bringing men, as was supposed, to the foot 
of the cross. Even thinking and sober-minded Christians 
were almost awed by the seeming power of this instru- 
mentality; and the vast numbers that were brought under 
its influence. The increase of the various religious 
bodies that adopted it, has been almost incredible ; and 
their ministers have been accustomed to look to it almost 
exclusively, as the agency for extending Christianity. If 
they could not have one or two revivals in the course of 
the year, they felt that God had withdrawn His presence, 
and the converting influences of His spirit. We were 



* See Banner, vol. 15, pp. 3-30. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 121 



pronounced formalists, and destitute of piety, because 
" we would not run with them to the same excess." But 
how often we learn wisdom by the very painful pathway 
of our experience — how often time developes results, that 
our zeal and sanguine faith could never have anticipated. 
Now, these same ministers write articles, and books, for 
the world, upon the evils of revivals. In one of the 
ablest and most influential periodicals of the Methodists, 
we find this language : "It cannot be denied that the sys- 
tem of recruiting our Church by revivals, has been seri- 
ously abused : and that the faith of our preachers and 
people, in the benefits of such religious excitements, by 
the aid of professional agitators, has been fraught with 
consequences the most disastrous to the Church. Machine 
made converts were found to have a very ephemeral life, 
and the successful labors of the reviver, to fill the classes 
of probationers, were generally followed by the more 
laborious, and very ungrateful efforts of the regular 
preachers, to rid them of careless and irreligious members. 
Camp-meetings, too, from a variety of causes, have become 
very unproductive, and many of our most thoughtful 
preachers and members have found it necessary to dis- 
courage attendance upon them." * To this very candid 
confession from New York, we can add the following 
impartial testimony from another of the same body, the 
venerable Judge Hopper, of Maryland. He says, "Here- 
tofore I have been an advocate for Camp-meetings, and 
the people of this circuit have generally had one once a 
year : but at the first quarterly meeting, which is the time 
this matter is generally agitated, there was not one mem- 
ber of the Conference, nor to my knowledge one member 

* New York Christian Advocate and Journal, September, 1854. 

11 



122 



SEB M N VI. 



of the Church, in favor of such a meeting. Their use- 
fulness for religious improvement, and for the conversion 
of sinners, has become less and less for many years past. 
Where conversions have taken place, they have been 
ephemeral, and the effects of the meetings on the mem- 
bers have been 'like the morning cloud and the early 
dew/ ;; * From Virginia, another witness comes forward 
and says, "I think that protracted meetings have about 
accomplished their work in this part of the country. 
They have lost their interest, to a great extent, among 
me people. They are no better attended than the ordi- 
nary meetings, and when held in the usual way, night 
after night, for months together, result in a very small 
harvest. There is hardly enough gain, frequently, to 
keep the membership good in point of numbers. We 
have not even done this in our Conference during the past 
year; although there have been protracted meetings, 
we number three hundred and ninety-nine, less than 
the last year/'~j" When we find similar testimony 
from almost all parts of the country — when we look 
at this as a modern system of human invention : 
when we discover its ultimate tendency is to destruc- 
tion instead of edification ; and that it is a mixture 
of great evil with comparatively little good; must 
we not pronounce it a feeble agency for disseminating 
Christianity in the nation, and furnishing religion for 
this Republic ? yea, rather have we not seen that if 
adhered to, it must bring diminution, and perhaps 
ultimate extinction, of the religious bodies that uphold 
and advocate it ? Do not its sad results, so humiliatingly 

* Methodist Protestant, August, 1854. 

f X. Y. Christian Advocate, August. 18o4. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 123 

confessed, and published abroad by some of its former 
ardent friends, furnish a most convincing reason for 
adhering to divine means, the old paths, and the faith 
and practice of the Apostles and their more immediate 
followers ? 

One other great defect that arrests our attention in 
considering the denominational system, is its practical 
loss of the Christian nurture of the young. It is not 
necessary to spend time in proving that the training of 
the rising generation in the principles of the Gospel, is 
the most effectual means of establishing a people upon 
the foundations of religious truth, and u building them 
up in the faith and fear of God ; " and that if the young 
are permitted to attain to mature years, without receiving 
the implanting of God's grace, and careful nurture in 
religious truth, there will be little hope of a general 
dissemination of high moral rectitude, and attractive 
piety. In this essential nurture and training, most of 
the religious bodies around us are practically deficient. 
Not that they have not Sunday schools for the instruc- 
tion of the young; not that they do not recognize the 
importance of these means, and require the attendance 
of children upon public worship, and the preaching of 
the Gospel; but they do not adhere to divine directions, 
nor carry out that plan which originated under the J ewish 
dispensation, was enlarged by Christ and his apostles, 
and is a part of the Gospel provision for human salva- 
tion. The Baptist body, now regarded as the largest in 
the United States, has rejected infant baptism entirely, 
and never permit their children to enter into a covenant 
relation to their God; denying the possibility and 
necessity of such a contract, even by parents or guar- 
dians ; and the capability of children to recieve the 



124 



SERMON VI. 



divine blessing in holy baptism. ^Most of the other 
religious bodies retain in their standards this Sacrament; 
but in their practice, reject it to a great extent, judging 
from the small number baptized; its refusal to all but 
the children of communicants, and the infrequency with 
which it is made the subject of pulpit instruction. Last 
year, we are informed, that in seventy congregations in 
one New England State, and in ninety in another,* there 
was not a single infant baptism, and in one of their oldest 
congregations, not one for seven years. Aud even those 
children, that are dedicated to God's service in this 
divine institution, are not regarded as His children, as 
being in the Ark of His church; nor addressed as being 
highly privileged; admitted to His covenant of promise, 
and the recipients of a heavenly blessing; but as still 
aliens and strangers, appealed to as the most godless are, 
and never told that they have been made children of 
grace. The principle that parents most generally adopt 
among them is, that their children should not be biased 
or influenced in religious things; that they should be 
permitted to grow up, and judge, for themselves; and 
that mature years furnish a sufficiently early period, for 
entering seriously upon the work of preparation for death 
and judgment. The consequence is, that their ministers 
have little hold upon the young; they find them reluc- 
tant to receive their instruction; there seems no holy 
bond to unite them together, and they more generally 
stray away, to wander from fold to fold, " carried about 
with every wind of doctrine;" or else they form habits of 
indifference; abstain from public worship, neglect the 
Lord's day, and become victims of popular unbelief, and 
sink into the grave " like the beasts that parish." 
That this is not mere assertion, and that these several 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 125 

bodies are becoming aroused to the great neglect of 
Christian nurture, we have abundant testimony. Even 
the Baptists are endeavoring to revive a former custom of 
dedicating their children; once practiced, it is said, in 
Wales ) whereby the minister took the child, they say in 
imitation of our Saviour, and dedicated it to God in the 
name and behalf of its parents. A committee upon 
Sunday Schools of a late General Conference of the 
Methodists, despairs of making many conversions in the 
older States by means of mere preaching, and says, "in 
such portions of our great field of labor, we must look 
for sound conversions more as the blessed sequence of a 
system of thorough religious education, than as the 
result of those sudden and overwhelming conversions, 
which characterized those times when such training was 
impossible."* A most candid and lamentable confession, 
appears in one of their largest and most wide-spread 
periodicals, in regard to their defective system, and the 
relation of baptized children to the Church. He says : 
"It doubtless has been a matter of the deepest regret to 
every lover of God and His church, to witness the sad 
havoc which Satan and the world have made, and are 
still making, among the children of God's professed 
people; and the question has arisen, "Is there not a 
cause ? Is not the church herself to a great degree 
responsible? Does not a large amount of the blame lie 
against a defective economy, in not making a suitable 
provision for its members ? What provision has the 
Church made for these lambs of the flock ? We answer, 
none at all ; they are admitted into the Church by the 
sacred rite of baptism, and then are left in their help- 

* See Christian Advocate and Journal, vol. 2, page 211. 
11* 



126 



SERMON VI. 



lessness to the tender mercies of the world and sin. 
There ought* to be a distinct recognition on the part of 
the Church, that though they be lambs, yet they are a 
part of Christ's fold; and as such, are entitled to the 
sympathy and protection of the Church. There ought 
to be disciplinary regulations, making provision for the 
practical exhibition of this sympathy and protection. 
There is no time to be lost. Our children are growing 
up around us; they are going out from our families and 
Sunday Schools, by hundreds and thousands, and 'no 
man careth for their souls/ We repeat, something 
must be done, and done speedily."* We have equally 
candid confessions from other religious bodies, and 
particular allusion to that appropriate rite of confirma- 
tion, by which these same baptized children, trained in 
the path of duty, and instructed in the essential truths 
of the Gospel, are enabled to come forth and profess 
their faith before men, and receive an additional blessing 
for the more burdensome and difficult duties of life. 
Even Calvin, said: "I sincerely wish that we retained 
this custom of imposition of hands, which was practiced 
amongst the ancients. Beza, Owen, and Adam Clarke, 
speak very much in the same way. A committee of the 
Presbyterian General Assembly, many years ago, in 
alluding to a plan of disciplining baptized children, 
make the following frank acknowledgment on the subject 
of confirmation.! "It appears that a rite called confirm- 
ation was administered by imposition of hands of the 
minister, or Bishop, or Elder, together with prayer, on 

* See Banner, vol. 16, p. 77. 

f See Presbyterian Clergyman Looking for the Church, p. 91. 
t Bishop Hobart'g sermon on Confirmation. 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 127 



baptized children at a certain age." They quote both 
Calvin and Owen as authorities ; and then use that 
emphatic passage from Hooker. "This rite of confirma- 
tion, thus administered to baptized children, when 
arrived to competent years, and previously instructed 
and prepared for it, with the express view to their 
• admission to the Lord's Supper, shows clearly that the 
primitive church, in her purest days, exercised the 
authority of a mother over her baptized children." If 
then, upon their own confession, their system is thus defec- 
tive; if infant baptism itself is falling into disuse, and 
they are obliged to acknowledge the loss of hundreds 
and thousands, on account of their inability to keep 
them within their respective folds ; is their system 
calculated to reach the young of the nation, and thus 
lay the foundation for national faith and holiness? 
There is no longer need of argument, when such volun- 
tary and unqualified confessions are made. 

With this plain, and I believe impartial investigation 
of these four prominent and defective features of the 
denominational system, I, for the present, rest my cause. 
Much more might be said upon certain significant indi- 
cations, such as the publishing of forms of family and 
private devotion;* the discussion of the propriety and 

*Thus the Boston Watchman and Reflector, (Baptist) says: 

" On all sides there are notes of discontent with the present 
character and effect, or alleged no-effect of public worship. A 
Congregational contemporary has argued for the right and pro- 
priety of some liturgical forms, to give variety and animation 
to the services of the sanctuary, and especially to enlist more 
powerfully the devout feeling of the congregation. A volume 
has appeared to recall Presbyterians to the fact, that so far is 
it from the truth that their polity is essentially inconsistent 



128 



SERMON VI. 



benefit of introducing a Liturgy or Form of prayer into 
their public worship, the raising of committees to prepare 
such Forms; their return to ancient music by adopting 
chants, their praises of God in the language of the 
Psalms of David, accompanied with the solemnizing 
tones of the organ; their gathering together in imposing 
and costly gothic structures, and adoption of a variety of 
ancient and useful practices, which once unfortunately 
were made an excuse by their ancestors for leaving the 
Church; but we must be content to rejoice that we are 
thus coming together in outward things. Let us seek 
more and more for unity in spiritual things; "to adorn 
the doctrine of Grod our Saviour/ ' to "show out our 
works, with meekness of wisdom;" to see that "all things 
are done unto edifying," following that venerable and 
safe maxim of St. Augustine — "in essentials, unity; in 
non-essentials, liberality ; in all things, charity." 

with liturgical worship, the disuse thereof is modern. The 
Dutch Reformed Church, in Synod assembled, has been revising 
her liturgy, and the discussions indicated growing interest in it. 

"A Presbyterian Church, in Rochester, has adopted the name 
of St. Peter's, built an edifice with an eye to the suggestions of 
ecelesiology, and practices responsive worship. The Universal- 
ists, not to be behind their neighbors, are to have a National 
Convention, one object of which is to agree upon a liturgy." 

In connection with the above, we give the following extract 
from another Baptist paper, the Louisville Recorder: 

* 'Though we have (at least among Protestants) no human priest 
or sacrificial altar, yet among us the social element and power 
of the Church has become cramped, ice-bound, or entirely 
destroyed. We have become an assembly, not of living actors, 
but of silent, passive hearers. The Church has become mere 
listeners to preachers^-a roll of names baptized, permitted to 



THE DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM. 129 



take the Lord's Supper, and expected to enjoy good preaching. 
Like the door on the hinges they come and they go. They are 
prayed for, and sung to, and preached to ; and often sung and 
preached to sleep, if not to death. Thus year after year, in this 
continuous round, dead flat, oyer which not a breath of emotion 
passes to disturb the dull and decent monotony. The minister 
seeks not, and the Church strives not, to i grow up into Him in 
« all things, which is the Head, even Christ, from whom the whole 
body fitly joined and compacted by that which every joint 
supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of 
every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of 
itself in love.' But relying on the preacher, when he is gone, 
all is gone — the glory has departed. ' 

4 'The evil and unscriptural character of this is being felt by all, 
both ministers and people. There is a deep and growing con- 
sciousness of the lack of concentrated and constant power in our 
usual public services. There is felt the pressing need of a 
change — a radical change — from our present monotonous custom 
of making the whole Church silent, inactive listeners, while its 
whole power and strength is expected to be put forth by the one 
man in the pulpit." 



SERMON VII. 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 

1 Thessalonians v: 21. — "Prove all things; hold fast that 
which is good." 

In the series of discourses, which will be brought to a 
close this evening, we have considered successively, the 
necessity of promoting a national morality and religion, 
inasmuch as in various senses, " we are members one of 
another ; " the more prominent and alarming dangers to 
which they are exposed; the hopes of their continued 
preservation; the influence of the many religious bodies 
in the land, and especially of the Romish and denomina- 
tional systems upon their general extension ; while in 
this seventh and last discourse, your attention will be 
directed to that mode which the Church of our affections 
has prescribed for this vastly important purpose. Could 
we separate ourselves from the multitude — escape from 
the influence of vice and degeneracy — make the present 
the only time to awaken our interest, and religion a thing 
of convenience and change ; these topics never would 
have been discussed, nor these discourses written. But 
when we know the truth is from God, never to be 
remodeled nor improved — that we are a link in a chain 
of generations, through, and by whom, valued trusts and 



THE C II U R C H S Y S T E M . 



131 



commissions, are to be handed down, and perpetuated — 
that the corruption and degradation of others, will over- 
shadow and darken the cheerfulness of our prosperity, 
and the sunshine of our joy — and that we are united 
with all classes and conditions, by varied bonds and in 
many relations ; we cannot fail to perceive that these are 
' topics of the deepest interest; and that sooner or later 
we must meet them face to face, in all their reality and 
power; though their discussion may excite painful reflec-^ 
tions, and develop humiliating facts. The rule followed 
throughout has been that of the Apostle to " prove all 
things," and then "hold fast that which is good." If 
the facts can be denied, the conclusions will be given 
up ; but if they cannot be proven false, the conclusions 
must stand, though they concern a multitude. You 
will bear me witness that, in considering the two systems 
which have already passed in review; your faith was not 
required to rest on mere assertion, supposition, nor preju- 
dice, when I endeavored to show that neither of them is 
the best mode for the preservation and promulgation of 
the Gospel in the land; but that the declarations, and 
confessions of their respective advocates, and the incon- 
trovertible facts which their history furnished, were the 
testimony upon which reliance was placed. In present- 
ing the various features of the Church system, endeavor- 
ing to show that its defects are comparatively few, and 
that, therefore, when used, it is the pest mode, the effort 
will be made to bring evidence, equally unexceptionable, 
and conclusive. 

Our attention is first arrested by the striking and 
expressive similarity between the outward organization 
of the Church, and the civil government under which we 
live. While the effort has often been made to prove that 



132 



SERMON VII. 



Episcopacy is so associated with Monarchy, that it can 
present nothing congenial to a Republic; yet facts show 
that the Church more closely conforms to the civil polity 
than any other religious body in the land. She, like 
the government, is a Confederacy. Her ecclesiastical 
divisions, called Dioceses, are generally the several States 
— as the Diocese and State of Pennsylvania — Ohio — 
Maryland, &c, — corresponding to the Governor is a 
Bishop, and to the Legislature a Convention. Again 
there is a Presiding Bishop, as there is a Cnief Magis- 
trate of the nation — and analagous to the two Houses of 
Congress, are the House of Bishops, and that of Clerical 
and Lay deputies, constituting the General Convention 
of the whole Church in these United States. In making 
laws, as no Governor, Upper or Lower House of the Legis- 
lature, President, Senate, or House of Representatives, 
can separately enact a single statute — so no Bishops, 
Clergymen or Laymen can pass canons ; but in all cases 
there must be the concurrence of the three governing 
powers. It is a maxim of English Law, * confirmed by 
the farewell words of Washington — the language of 
President Jefferson, Chief Justice Marshall, and the 
Constitution of many States, that " there is no liberty 
where the Judicial power is not separated from the Legis- 
lative, and Executive." "The consolidation of these 
powers," said the Father of his Country, "whatever the 
form of government, is a despotism." It is a singular 
fact that no words could have been more fitly chosen to 
exhibit the great cardinal principles in the structure of 
of the Church; and it is still more singular that no other 
religious body in the land can be found thus constituted. 

* See Presbyterian Clergyman Looking for the Church, p. 299. 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 133 

Thus Episcopacy corresponds in this particular with the 
Republic, only that it is even more democratic, because 
while the President can veto an act of Congress, the 
same power can be exercised only by a majority of the 
Bishops. No Bishops can enact laws — no Convention 
can act in a judicial capacity; but the three powers are 
kept as distinct in the Church, as the State. But it is 
not so in any other religious body; and this fundamental 
principle, that is so strongly and reasonably urged by the 
brightest political luminaries of this land, as well as 
England, has been preserved alone as a part of the sys- 
tem of the Church. So, too, she commends herself to 
public confidence by the recognition of the rights of the 
Laity. In the exercise of these three necessary powers, 
they bear a part. They are members of our Conventions, 
and Standing Committees — they have a voice in the 
election of their Bishops and Rectors — no Ministers can 
be imposed upon them without their consent. They 
form the larger part of the Corporations that hold and 
appropriate the funds of the Church — so that whether in 
making laws — choosing their pastors — distributing the 
offerings of the liberal and benevolent, they are shielded 
against oppression and injustice- — have the opportunity 
of securing the most efficient ministerial service, and are 
permitted to feel that they are not in bondage to any 
man — are under a government in which they have a 
representation, and are in all respects Gospel freemen. 
In these particulars the Church has done wisely. While 
conforming to the ancient model, as set forth in the first 
council at Jerusalem, composed of " apostles, elders and 
brethren/' or Bishops, Presbyters and laity; she has 
given to all, their respective rights, and gained the great 
advantage of conforming to those principles of civil gov- 

12 



134 



SERMON VII. 



ernment, which commend themselves to our reason, and 
sense of justice. Why was one of the largest denomina- 
tions* in the land, rent asunder a few years ago, but 
because the Laity were excluded from its government, and 
had no voice in its legislation, nor the choice of their pas- 
tors? And what but this same principle, and the con- 
sequent centralization of power in the mere ecclesiastic, 
is now agitating the Romish church, and arraying multi- 
tudes against the faith it inculcates ? .And is the Church 
system the opposite of all this ? how much better suited 
to our people — how much more acceptable to the multitude 
of men — how like the earliest practice of the Christians. 

We next notice the uniformity of the doctrine of 
the Church. Accepting the clearly established prin- 
ciple, that all true religion must come from God, 
and that "the faith was once for all delivered to 
to the saints/' she has never adopted the opinions of any 
man as such; believing that Christianity can make 
progress only as a divine revelation. Consequently she 
has no system of Cranmerism, Ridleyism, nor Hobartism, 
as we hear of Socinianism, Calvinism, Lutheranism and 
Wesleyism ; but she has the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds ; 
the one the formulary of apostolic teaching ; the other 
setting forth the same doctrine more fully, by the 
authority of a General Council of the church in A. D. 
325. These Creeds have never been abolished; they 
have not remained a dead letter in her Standards, but 
always been the guides, landmarks and boundaries of her 
faith; upon the lips of her children, from the youngest to 
the oldest, from the lowest to the highest; speaking in 
her Liturgy; from her pulpits, in her Sacraments ; at the 



*The Methodist. 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



135 



bedside of the sick and dying, and illuminating the 
pathway to the tomb. If we compare the Standards of 
the Church at any two given periods, since the Reforma- 
tion, you find no change; but in this year of grace, 1855, 
we profess our faith, and offer our devotions in the same 
consecrated words, we use the same Ordinances and Sacra- 
ments, and " walk by the same rule, and mind the same 
things," as when during the early Episcopate of the 
venerated Bishop -White, the church was hardly known 
beyond the precincts of the larger cities. During the 
entire history of the Church in this country, the Creeds 
and Articles have remained the same as when the first 
congregation met at Jamestown. And these were 
received from the Church in England, with the distinct 
declaration as found in the preface to the book of 
Common Prayer, "that this Church is far from intending 
to depart from the Church of England in any essential 
point of doctrine, discipline or worship; or further than 
local circumstances require." In that Church we find 
this same system continuing for the three hundred 
years, since she emerged from the darkness of a corrupt 
faith, and escaped the dominion of a foreign ecclesias- 
tical power. Even at the Reformation, this faith was 
not the invention of any one man, nor body of men, but 
was drawn from the Word of God, as universally inter- 
preted by the early Church during the first three centu- 
ries. If the divine revelation was completed some 
eighteen hundred years ago; if the divine way of salva- 
was then fully made known, the religion of this century 
must be that divine way; the faith of this day, that asks 
our confidence and love, must show itself that revelation; 
or we are not bound to receive and follow them as the 
prescription of Almighty God, and under the penalty of 



136 



SERMON VII. 



His displeasure for their neglect. There must be s 
historical connection; there must be identity proven 
satisfactorily, or your religion will not command human 
homage, awe into submission, draw back alienated love, 
nor restore the lost to the arms of a yearning Father, 
Can you make a child believe that he has the memento 
of a dearly loved parent, who has died in a foreign land; 
when he knows that it is the work of the skillful artisan 
in an adjoining street? Does not the intelligent traveler 
smile at the credulity of the superstitious Italian, who 
thinks he gazes at a valued relic in the form of a part of 
the cross on which our Saviour suffered ? If the parent 
had really left such a memento, and it had been faith- 
fully transmitted, how truly precious it might be to the 
heart of a loving child; but even this happiness would 
be diminished in proportion to the changes it has 
undergone in other hands. So if there were any portion 
of the material instruments of our Lord's agony, it would 
be rightly preserved by the devout and faithful; but 
their satisfaction would be lessened, if it had changed its 
form, though made seemingly useful or beautiful. And 
does not a similar law hold more certainly in spiritual 
things? Can men ever be made to adopt, love, and follow, 
a system of religion, as the legacy and memento of their 
Lord and Saviour, who has ascended into the heavens; 
when they know that it is the work of the cunning 
spiritual craftsman ? Will even the true Gospel be as 
much honored, and made as effectually, and constantly, 
the rule and guide of their lives, when they are convin- 
ced that it has been changed, and modified, in its trans- 
mission from generation to generation ? When, therefore, 
the Church establishes the fact that she holds the doc- 
trine of Christ, and that she has never changed the 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



137 



sacred gift and token of his love; that she believes as 
did the Apostles and their immediate followers; and now, 
as of old, adheres to "Evangelical truth and Apostolic 
order when she confidently shows you her history, in 
these modern days of change, and so-called progress and 
improvements; and then points you to her one uniform 
face, reflecting the light and glory of her Lord; neither 
dimmed nor obscured; she may well rejoice that she had 
the wisdom to stand firm, as she has experienced the 
blessing of being "the Keeper and Witness" of divine 
truth. 

Another great excellency of our system is the large 
provision that has been made for a dissemination of a 
knowledge of Holy Scripture. We well know that no 
lesson can be practiced, that has not been well learned; 
and we cannot expect a people to become Christian, unless 
we acquaint them with that inspired Word, which contains 
the truths and principles, whose observance is necessary 
to attain this important end. One of the first labors of 
the Reformers, therefore, was to bring the Scriptures 
within reach of the people; since they had been kept in 
ignorance for several centuries, the Bible being written 
in languages which they did not understand; and it had 
become a part of the policy of the Eomish Church, to 
deny her children access to the Word of G-od. To an 
enlightened King in communion with the Church, and 
his forty-seven learned scholars, we are indebted, under 
God, for that version of the Scriptures, known as King 
James' translation; which, since 1611, when it was 
completed, has done more for blessing the human family, 
and pointing the way to true and permanent happiness, 
than had been accomplished in the previous thousand 
years. The reading of that Word in the spoken language 

12* 



138 



SERMON VII. 



of the people, on all occasions of public worship, was 
made obligatory; and up to this hour, the church there 
and here, has distinguished herself as the only religious 
body that has made the presentation of large portions of 
the Scriptures promineut on all occasions of the assem- 
bling of her people. Providing as she did, not only for 
two Sunday, but also two daily services; directing 
that ten or twelve chapters should be thus read each 
day, and inculcating the duty of frequent private perusal 
of the inspired Word ; her members originating the first 
Bible society in England and this country; except 
Pennsylvania, which possessed one four years earlier 
than our own in New York ; and her sublime liturgy 
employing much of the language, as it is impregnated 
with the spirit, doctrine, and unction of the Holy Scrip- 
tures; it may well be asked, wherein has the Church 
failed to provide for the instruction of the people ? what 
truth has she kept back ? what opportunity left unimpro- 
ved? what ignorant soul does she ever send empty away? 
In these respects she stands alone among all the religious 
bodies of Christendom. As she was the first to unlock 
the Word of God, and open it to the people; so she has 
made the amplest and most efilcient provision for its 
general dissemination. And is not this the best mode 
for spreading Christianity throughout the whole land ? 
If we believe the Bible alone can make "men wise unto 
salvation j" if the word of God is called in one place 
"the sword of the spirit/'* and in another is spoken of 
"as quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
sword,"f should it not be unsheathed, revealed, and 
elevated, that all men may see the weapon of our warfare? 

*Eph. vi: 17. f Heb. iv: 12. 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



139 



Should it not be read in their hearing, as well as 
deposited in their dwellings; for "faith cometh by 
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God/'* No 
gorgeous and imposing ceremonial, no oft repeated 
prayers, no lengthened and impassioned discourses upon 
a few verses of Holy Writ, can ever accomplish the 
work of the Gospel; this ceremonial, these praters, and 
especially this preaching, pre- suppose some acquaintance 
with God's Word, its facts, incidents, and events; and 
the Church which does most for disseminating the 
Scriptures, so as to reach not only the hands, but the 
ears, hearts and consciences of the multitude, is most 
effectually doing the work of her Master, and raising up 
true soldiers, to form new regiments, to go forth for 
greater conquests, and more glorious victories. 

Another element for great public good is found in the 
unbroken uniformity of her discipline and worship. The 
Church recognizes, and practices but one mode for bring- 
ing mem to Christ, and training them for His everlasting 
kingdom — all her children are brethren. They are at 
home in every part of our widely extended land. They 
may travel north or south, east or west, and they have 
only to cross the threshold of her sanctuaries, and they 
hear their household words — familiar sounds greet their 
ears — and the well known counsels and benedictions of 
their Mother in the extreme north or east, await their 
arrival in the extreme south or west. One system of 
laws — doctrine and duty — the same language of prayer 
and praise — the same offices for the sick and dying — 
the same sublime formulary to solemnize the interment 
of the unconscious dead, meet them on the shores of the 



* Romans x : 17. 



140 



SERMON VII. 



Connecticut, the Potomac, the Mississippi, and the Paci- 
fic; and they feel that they have only passed to different 
apartments of the same mansion, where groups of one 
family are congregated. TTho cannot see in this admira- 
ble provision, a valuable instrumentality for the wide 
dissemination of a common faith, and an influential reli- 
gion? TVhen in 1850 this country was seemingly on 
the verge of disunion, and " men's hearts were failing 
them for fear/' the then distinguished Senator* from 
South Carolina, in what proved to be his farewell speech 
in the Senate, drew some of his gloomiest forebodings 
from the fact that all the prominent Protestant bodies 
had been rent asunder, with one exception; and that 
was the Protestant Episcopal church, of which he was a 
a member — thus showing his appreciation of ecclesiasti- 
cal unity in a nation; while we can now feel that the 
same Church is even more strongly one than then; and 
thus proving herself admirably fitted to carry the glad 
tidings of the Gospel to every part of the land, without 
being affected in her holy work by political questions, 
sectional differences, and matters of temporal, or secular 
policy. It is no wonder then that of the thirteen Presi- 
dents of the United States, Washington, Monroe, Madi- 
son, Harrison, Tyler and Taylor were Episcopalians. 
"Xo wonder," as one has truly said, t "that the pure 
hearts and polished intellects of our most brilliant states- 
men, as Hamilton, Jay, Henry and many others, have so 
often gathered to her standard; or that in the single 
year of 1847, Chief Justice Spencer and Henry Clay, 
Chancellor Kent and Daniel Webster, did, without fear 

* Calhoun's last speech. See his works. 
| Looking for the Church, page 307. 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



141 



of doing danger to the liberties of the Republic, bend 
their knees at the altar of the Episcopal church, give her 
their allegiance, and take the cup of salvation at her 
hand. The fact will bear attention that the quiet ways 
of the Church, her acknowledged dignity and manifest 
conservatism; her great principle of reverence, the nega- 
1 tion of which is the chief danger in republican govern- 
ments, and her wholesome and tried stability as a solid 
sea-mark amid a sea of impulses and changes; with 
her own interior arrangements of order, propriety and 
mutual restraints, constitute the great desideratum, 
meet the great danger, and furnish the solution to the 
great problem of Republican Liberty, and practical 
Democracy; while the harmony and uniformity of her 
worship, the beauty of her sanctuary, and the unity of 
her body, will bind and blend together the millions of 
the people." It is feared that we do not rightly estimate 
this conservative character of the Church — the absolute 
need of a controlling, balancing and guiding power in the 
nation; where there are conflicting interests, excited, 
impulsive men, ambitious and self-seeking partizans. It 
is not sufficient that we have energy, enterprise, wealth, 
increase and prosperity : but there must be an influence 
to direct, restrain and preserve these elements of great- 
ness, power and glory. Every where this law and neces- 
sity are manifested. The mariner does not simply 
launch his majestic ship, to be driven hither and thither, 
at the mercy of the winds and waves; biit provides his 
helm and compass, and governs, by the light and wisdom 
of a continued experience. It is not sufficient that the 
plant and tree, are made beautiful, and profitable, with 
their foliage, blossoms and fruit; but they stand upright, 
by means of their deep dug roots — their counterbalancing 



142 



SERMON VII. 



branches — their gradually diminishing forms, as they 
increase in elevation. Even the massive earth was not 
completed, and set in motion, till it had been brought 
under the influence of laws, that should keep it within 
its sphere — continue its revolutions, and contribute to 
the harmony and safety of the universe of the divine 
Architect. There is conservatism in everything, and 
Christianity holds this relation to the nation, and the 
Church embodies this conservative Christianity. Do we 
find the civil authority disregarded, and the magistrate 
lightly esteemed — she enjoins reverence for duly consti- 
tuted authority — and enforces with the most binding 
sanctions, her Master's and the Apostles' precepts. u Ren- 
der therefore unto Cassar the things which are Caesar's" — 
and " to all their dues" — " fear to whom fear, honor to 
whom honor." Are there religionists in the land, who, 
under the plea of zeal for God and His holy cause, inter- 
fere with questions, that are so bound up with the organi- 
zation of society, that they require the utmost caution, 
wisdom and penetration for their discussion ; and whose 
difficult and delicate solution, has as yet baffled the most 
exalted intellects of the land; behold the Church imita- 
ting the divine forbearance, keeping aloof from the arena 
of strife, which may end in brother contending against 
brother, and deluging the land in blood ; and doing the 
appropriate work of the Lord in preaching " repentance 
towards G-od and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." The 
themes of her pulpits are not the exciting topics of the 
legislative halls — the right or wrong of an enactment for 
the erection of a territory — the necessity of restraining 
intemperance in drink, and leaving intemperance in every 
thing else, to go unrebuked and unchecked : but in imi- 
tation of the inspired Teachers, she enjoins men to be 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



143 



"temperate in all things" — depicts the miseries, and 
eternal, as well as temporal, consequences of the bondage 
of sin; and holds up before all men, to win their love- 
arouse their sleeping souls, and excite their lively faith, 
" The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the 
world." When we remember the events of the last few 
• years — and shut not our eyes upon the scenes of the 
present, nor our ears to the rumbling and prophetic 
thunderings that burden the disturbed atmosphere of our 
land, we may well take up the language of one who has 
now gone to his last resting place, who said, * "We see 
clouds hovering in the distance, which the wand of the 
statesman may not be able to disperse. We hear invec- 
tives in the North, and murmurings in the South, which 
a Senate may not be able to conciliate. We feel a vol- 
cano under our feet, which, if it burst, will blacken our 
bright Capitol to cinders. We see hands busy in designs 
which all Europe combined could not achieve against 
this fair Republic. But as the mouse, in the fable, 
gnawed the cable that had defied the strength of the 
lion ; or as the despicable worm eats through the bottom 
of the ship at anchor, which had ridden out the wildest 
tempest of the sea ; so may this Republic, parting its 
cable, at which Puritan fanaticism is at this moment 
gnawing, and letting in waters from causes operating in 
the dark, experience what the larger denominations of 
Christians in the land have already exemplified, the 
separation of the North and South. The Church will 
not divide ; unity is her life ; one Body, one Spirit. If 
any thing is to save this Republic it will be Christianity. 
If Christianity is to retain its power, it will be by its 



* Looking for the Church, page 306. 



1U 



SERMON VII. 



unity. If unity is to be preserved it will be by the 
Church. And perhaps the day may come, when the 
church shall be recalled, as she was to England " after 
the sad period of the commonwealth, and Cromweirs 
desolations, not by the civil power, to be incorporated 
with it 5 God forbid ! but "by a people weary of the end- 
less tumults, disunions and exactions of Puritan fanati- 
cism, to pour oil on the waves, and heal the breaches of 
the nation." 

The church has a system of pastoral care and training, 
most favorable to the dissemination of the holiest influ- 
ences of Christianity. She requires all, before entering 
her ministry, to give up their secular employments, and 
ordinary pursuits, and to secure a prescribed amount of 
literary and theological attainment. Before the laying 
on of the hands of the Bishop, in ordination, and their 
reception to the priesthood, they are solemnly and pub- 
licly exhorted, whilst standing before the altar, to have 
in remembrance the high dignity and weightiness of the 
office to which they are called — to " see that they never 
cease their labor, care and diligence, until they have done 
all that lieth in them, according to their bounden duty 
to bring all such as are, or shall be committed to their 
charge, unto that agreement in the faith and knowledge 
of God, and to that ripeness and perfection of age in 
Christ, that there be no place left among them, for error 
in religion, or for viciousness in life," " They are, as much 
as lieth in them, to apply themselves wholly to this one 
thing — and draw all their cares and studies this way/' — 
and to " lay aside the study of the world and the flesh." * 
In one word, they give themselves up, soul and body — 



* Ordination office. 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 145 

time, energy and strength, to the work of gathering men 
into the fold of Christ, and fitting them for His kingdom 
in heaven. No father has more entire control over his 
child, no master over his servant, no ruler over his sub- 
ject, than the Church has over every power, faculty and 
talent of her clergy. They have nothing too valuable to 
be given up for your sakes, or appropriated for your 
benefit. You may command them by night or by day. 
You may flee before the pestilence to a place of health - 
fulness; they must abide at their posts, though life is 
suddenly sacrificed, or gradually wasted away in a service 
of mercy for others. You may curtail your business — 
suspend its operation for a time, and seek frequent 
relaxation, if it is your pleasure : they may not silence 
the voice of prayer, nor the Gospel trumpet; they may 
not go from their field of labor without a substitute, lest 
an enemy step in, or they be needed for special duty, 
emergency and danger. But " spending and being 
spent" — with an eye over every one — a member of every 
household — a counselor in doubt — a comforter in sor- 
row — a monitor in prosperity, and at all times an exam- 
ple to the flock, though the labor be burdensome to them, 
the care oppressive, and the anxiety almost too much for 
prolonged endurance ; and who can estimate their influ- 
ence for good, or measure the benefit which they bring 
to a land darkened by sorrow and by sin. Probably no 
where is this pastoral care more fully, effectually, and 
happily enjoyed, and realized, than in the Church of our 
confidence and love. There are influences in her to draw 
rector and people more frequently together— causes to 
bind them more closely — offices and relations to awaken 
feelings of interest and attachment— all which tend to 
give prominence and power to that Gospel, which should 

13 



146 



SERMON VII. 



always be preached attractively, and impressively, in the 
lives and characters of those, who are "the watchmen, 
stewards and messengers of the Lord." Their going in 
and out of their respective households — their social inter- 
course with their people — their free communications 
upon the varied work of the Church — the occasional 
counsel, caution and rebuke — their " weeping with them 
that weep," as well as " rejoicing with them that rejoice" 
— all tend to open the heart, commend the Gospel, and 
mould the character; so that while the faithful pastor 
learns the nature and necessities of his people, he 
awakens that confidence and affection, which are requi- 
site to enable them to profit by his instructions, and 
humbly accept his admonitions. 

Added to this, the Church has constantly in use a 
system of training, which cannot be too highly appre- 
ciated. We may have infants before reason has expanded, 
and responsibility commenced, and does she shut her 
doors against them — wait for them to advance to years of 
maturity, and then come and ask admission ? Does she 
place sentinels at her gates, and exclude all who are yet 
without knowledge, and with unexpanded intellects? 
No. Her language is, " the minister of every parish 
shall often admonish the people that they defer not the 
baptism of their children, unless upon a great and 
reasonable cause." * She not only provides for their 
admission into her household, but makes it the duty of 
parents to bring them at the earliest possible period. 
Here her care and training begin. She then provides a 
summary of Christian doctrine and duty, called the 
Catechism, to be learned by every such child ; the parents 

* Rubric in the Baptismal office- 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



147 



and sponsors are exhorted also to " see that he is taught, 
so soon as he is able to learn, what a solemn vow, 
promise and profession he has made by them — to call 
upon him to hear sermons ; and chiefly they are to pro- 
vide that he may learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
and the Ten Commandments, and all other things which 
a Christian ought to know and believe to his soul's 
health/'* Each minister also must henceforth direct 
his eye to that child, instructing him from year to year, 
and fitting him, when arrived at a suitable age, for the 
second ordinance of the Church — the rite of Confirma- 
tion — after which he is privileged to go forth regularly, 
and with the requisite dispositions, partake of the Supper 
of the Lord, for the continued strengthening and refresh- 
ing of his soul. During all this time the Church has 
her public round of services, annually presenting the 
prominent events of our Saviour's life, and ceaselessly 
holding , forth the doctrines He taught, that thus this 
same young Christian may be instructed in Holy Scrip- 
ture, and moved, by all the sacred incentives the Gospel 
furnishes, to diligence and faithfulness in the Christian 
calling. Is he sick, the Church sends her minister with 
her blessing and prayers, and raises her voice in the 
public sanctuary in his behalf. Is he about to enter, 
with another, into the holy bonds of matrimony, she sets 
forth the true character of that divine institution/ and 
bestows her benediction, while she requires their mutual 
vows and pledges. Is he brought into imminent danger, 
by protracted or aggravated disease; she provides her 
consoling prayers and holy communion for himself, and a 
chosen few, who surround his bedside; and even at the 



* Baptismal Service. 



148 



SERMON VII. 



moment of departure to the world of spirits, she " com- 
mends his soul into the hands of his faithful Creator and 
most merciful Saviour."* When nothing remains but 
the inanimate dust, and sorrow and gloom fill the hearts 
of those who survive; she still has this in her keeping, 
and consigns it to the kindred earth in hopes of a joyful 
resurrection, in language so appropriate and comforting, 
and in manner so simple, yet affecting, and solemnizing, 
that nothing, but the warmest admiration has come from 
all hearts, for the Burial Office of the Episcopal Church. 
Thus from infancy to old age, from the cradle to the 
grave, she never loses sight of her children — she treats 
them as such — rebuking them if they go astray — calling 
them back with a mother's yearning tenderness, when 
they are far out of the way; but always ready with a 
blessing, if they will come and receive it, at her hands. 
Can we conceive a wiser or more efficient instrumentality, 
than this training service of the Church ? equally 
applicable to all classes — suited to all grades of intellect, 
and whose very simplicity is the manifestation of consum- 
mate wisdom. Carry this out in the whole land, let it 
operate upon even one-half the population, and how like 
the voice of many waters, another generation would 
swell the praises of God and the Lamb; while the 
present is only blaspheming, and imprecating heaven's 
vengeance. There can be nothing effectually gained till 
the work is begun in childhood ; and when begun, it 
should never be laid aside. Behold then the Church 
doing this very thing, and therefore every filial soul 
should break forth in the language of a living priest of 
God. 

* Office for the Visitation of the Sick. 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



149 



"I love the Church — the holy Church, 

That o'er our life presides. 
The birth, the bridal, and the grave, 
And many an hour besides ! 

"Be mine, through life to live in Her, 
And when the Lord shall call, 
To die in Her, the Spouse of Christ, 
The Mother of us all."* 

Thus, beloved brethren, I have endeavored to present 
the more prominent features of the system of the Church, 
as being eminently calculated to spread the blessings of 
the Gospel throughout the land. Having directed your 
attention to other systems on former occasions, you will 
be able to estimate their comparative value. There is 
enough in the history of the past to show you the influ- 
ence and workings of the three systems. Contrast Spain, 
Germany, and England, and you have the results of 
their experiments; and no one so ignorant as not to 
know which nation holds Christianity most firmly within 
its grasp, and is becoming more and more distinguished 
for its zeal in propagating the faith of Christ. While 
the sects are dying out in England, the Church has 
awoke with new life and energy. Even her enemies are 
looking on in wonder at her expansion, munificence, and 
life ; and are confessing that it is the only body that is 
proving a blessing to the nation. If we look to our own 
Country, we need not be ashamed to tell her history, for 
it proves that she is eminently adapted to doing God's 
work in this enlightened land. A glance at New Eng- 
land, will show the Church at one time so depressed and 
weak, that she was the object of ridicule and contempt; 
and the denominational system never had a fairer field 



* Cox's Christian Ballads. — I love the Church. 
13* 



150 



SERMON VII. 



for manifesting its true energy and life. Within my own 
knowledge and recollection, a single Bishop, the humble 
minded Griswold, had charge of the whole New England 
States, with the exception of Connecticut; and now 
every State has its Bishop and band of clergy; while at a 
recent confirmation of sixty candidates, in a single parish, 
three-fourths of them were from without the Church. In 
Virginia, and Maryland, after the Revolution, the Churches 
were often used as shelter for the dumb brutes, the stone 
fonts for their watering troughs, and the sacred com- 
munion vessels, to grace the tables of the dissolute and 
profane. Now, three Bishops preside over those large 
Dioceses, and thousands have for many successive years 
been gathered into the fold of the Church. In all the 
land her ratio of increase has been almost incredible, 
when we consider the prejudice, misrepresentation, and 
varied difficulties she has had to encounter — her growth 
being seven-fold, when that of the population was four- 
fold. Therefore, it may be said of her here, as in 
England: "The Church has within itself a life which 
opposition cannot . destroy. Charles, Stafford, Laud, 
might die upon the scaffold; Hall might be plundered 
till he had scarce a plate for his children to eat from, or 
a chair for them to sit down; Jeremy Taylor, and 
Nicholson, with wisdom capable of instructing, and 
eloquence of entrancing generations, might be driven 
from the pulpit to keep school for their support; many 
an ancient fane might become a stable; the axe, the 
hammer and the stone, might do their work, on the car- 
ving and blazonry of sanctuaries; but it was not by such 
means that the revived truth of &od was to be destroyed. 
As soon as the blows of an enemy, that almost destroyed 
itself by its fury, had ceased, the aged trunk put forth a 
little shoot, green and delicate, so that any rude foot 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



151 



might have trodden it down * and other shoots grew 
beside it from the same mighty root, and they became 
* trees, and were venerable and overshadowing, and the 

birds of the air lodged in the branches of them; every 
tree having the fruit of a tree yielding seed." * So, 
likewise one of our own poets f has even more forcibly 
• embodied the same idea in language as beautiful, as it is 
expressive. 

"The Banyan of the Indian Isles, 

Strikes deeply down its massive root ; 
And spreads its branching life abroad, 

And bends to earth with scarlet fruit. 
And, when the branches reach the ground, 

They firmly plant themselves again : 
Then rise and spread, and droop, and root, 

An ever green, and endless chain. 

"And so the Church of Jesus Christ, 

The blessed Banyan of our God, - 
Fast rooted upon Zion's mount, 

Has sent its sheltering arms abroad ; 
And every branch, that from it springs 

In sacred beauty, spreading wide, 
As low it bends, to bless the earth, 

Still plants another by its side* 

" Long as the world itself shall last, 

The sacred Banyan still shall spread, 
From clime to clime, from age to age, 

Its sheltering shadow shall be shed ; 
Nations shall seek its 'pillared shade,' 

Its leaves shall, for their healing, be, 
The circling flood, that feeds its life, 

The blood, that crimsoned Calvary." 

* See Church Review, vol. 4, page 341 
fRt, Rev. G. W. Doane, D. D., LL. I>. 



152 



SERMON VII. 



Note. — The following forcible language is found in the same 
article. Church Review, vol. 4, page 346. "Three hundred 
years ago, 1553, Mary ascended the Throne of England, and the 
Reformation, it was fondly hoped by Rome, was quenched in 
the heart's blood of Cranmer. Another century rolled by, and 
Charles bent down his kingly head upon the scaffold, and the 
victory of Puritanism seemed complete. Again, another hundred 
years, and we may estimate, by what Butler and Berkeley have 
said, the sad condition of religion on both sides of the Atlantic. 
Still one more leap of a century, and we are brought to our own 
times — and what do we now see? Rome paralyzed at the very 
heart; and only supporting life in her local stronghold, (from 
which, when torn, she will neither have a name, nor a meaning) 
by the doubtful aid of Gallic bayonets ; while her worship has 
become a gaudy display of heathenish idolatry. Puritanism, 
divided into countless schisms, is unable to defend itself from the 
heresies which it has conjured up ; and changing its aspect with 
each coming year. But the glorious Reformed Church of Eng- 
land, in doctrine and in discipline, is precisely what she was 
when first she raised up the ensign of truth to the nations. 
While by the spontaneous energy of her own children, she has 
spread, and is spreading over the whole of this vast Northern 
Continent; throughout India, Australia, and the Islands of the 
Sea, reckoning her Bishops by scores — her Priests by thous- 
ands — and her Communicants by millions. Said the Bishop of 
Tennessee, in his late Jubilee Sermon in London, 'There are 
now congregations under the pastoral care of 2,750 clergymen, 
with more than fifty Bishops deriving their Episcopal character 
from the Church of England,' in Territories which have been 
occupied by the Venerable Society. The Church is now rallying 
around her the best hearts, and the strongest intellect on earth ; 
and teaching everywhere, with the Bible and Prayer-Book in her 
hands, the same belief our Saviour taught — the apostles dis- 
semminated — and the martyrs confirmed." 

Said Bishop Hopkins in his address, before the House of Con- 
vocation, of Trinity College, Hartford, last year, after present- 
ing the wonderful growth of the Church not only in this country, 
England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, (where there have been 



THE CHURCH SYSTEM. 



153 



about sixty thousand conversions from Romanism,) but also in 
various other parts of the world ; ' ' The sum total of the whole 
gives us one hundred and eight Bishops, with nearly thirty 
thousand clergy and assistants ; a grand sacramental host, 
firmly united by the same faith — the same apostolic ministry — 
the same system of worship — and commanding, in the intelli- 
• gence and social elevation of their millions of Laymen, the best 
and highest influence, for the religious and moral elevation of 
the world." 



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